Team India copped a nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at Holkar Stadium in Indore on Friday (March 3).
On a pitch that offered sharp turn, the Rohit Sharma-led side was bowled out for 109 and 163 across the two innings and eventually lost the match by nine wickets in two days and a session.
After the game, veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik weighed in on India’s loss, saying that batting on spinning track is tough but the batters of the home team need to do much better.
“We cannot hide from the fact that India’s top 7 haven’t got the scores that they would like. We are talking about consistent collapses. Is batting difficult on this pitch? Most definitely. But as a team they have chosen to play on these pitches which means they need to back themselves on them. They are capable of it, a lot of the players in isolation have probably played on tougher pitches and succeeded but playing international cricket is a different ball game,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“When you get out a couple of times there are so many doubts that come, the confidence gets low. And then, to go out there and still back yourself just to play those big shots to get away from pressure can be really hard. I completely empathise with the Indian batters, it is hard work, but that is what Test cricket is.”
Karthik also pointed out that the failures of Indian batters are being “camouflaged” by lower-order contributions.
“They will accept that a large part of it has been camouflaged by two things – the lower order contributions and the fact that India have won both those matches. If you rewind and go to the Bangladesh series, there also they struggled against spinners but it was camouflaged by India winning those matches and the lower order contributions. But when you lose a match, it is glaringly obvious, it is right in your face and people will speak about it and they are right in doing it. It has happened consistently over a period of time and the question will arise, how is it that team India is consistently backing these players but they are not producing the scores that is required,” he remarked.
Despite this loss, India lead the four-match series 2-1 with one Test to go in Ahmedabad, which the hosts will need to win to reach the World Test Championship (WTC) final. The fourth and final Test will start on March 9.
