India’s defeat in the Adelaide Test during the BGT 2024-25 series can be attributed to three main factors: batting inconsistency, failure to adapt to pitch conditions, and key moments of poor decision-making. Despite strong individual performances, these collective issues hindered India’s chances, allowing Australia to capitalize and secure victory.
Australia leveled the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a dominant victory in Adelaide.
Although India secured a dominant 295-run victory in the first BGT 2024-25 Test in Perth, their performance revealed underlying weaknesses that were yet to be addressed. The win, under Jasprit Bumrah’s leadership, merely masked the flaws that were exposed in Adelaide, where Australia convincingly won the pink-ball Test, leveling the series 1-1 with three matches remaining.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, India was dismissed for just 180 runs, with Mitchell Starc delivering his career-best figures of 6/48. Travis Head then smashed a rapid century, giving Australia a commanding lead of 157 runs. India struggled in their second innings, managing only 175 runs, with Pat Cummins taking five wickets. As India reviews their performance, the mistakes made during the Adelaide Test will stand out as the key reasons for their defeat.
BGT 2024-25: 3 reasons why India lost the Adelaide test
Twin batting malfunctions
When 21-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy, playing just his second Test match, ends up being the top scorer in both innings, it highlights a serious issue with the batting lineup.
India has been bowled out for 180 or fewer in three of their four innings during this tour, with Reddy emerging as the highest run-scorer in all three.
Although Jaiswal, Kohli, and KL Rahul managed to score runs in India’s second innings in Perth, it must be noted that these were the most favorable batting conditions of the series. The entire team has faltered when faced with challenging scenarios—on day one in both Tests and during the third session under lights on day two in Adelaide.
Returning captain Rohit Sharma, who, according to his supporters, has “selflessly” moved from the opening role to the middle-order, managed scores of 3 and 6 in Adelaide and appeared completely out of sorts against the Australian pacers.
Terrible captaincy
Rohit looked even more clueless as a captain when Travis Head was hammering one his fastest test centuries. This is the third time since 2023 that Head smashed a century in international cricket when Rohit was leading the Indian team.
Yet, Rohit clearly didn’t learn how to stop Head. The criticism that was laid down for Rohit and the bowlers in the ICC WTC 2021-23 final and the World Cup 2023 final was the lack of usage of short balls and bouncers to Head.
It was the same thing in Adelaide as well, as the Indian bowlers didn’t bowl barrage of bouncers consistently, and instead fed him deliveries outside off-stump to cut, drive, and loft, and on the pads to flick with ease.
BGT 2024-25, Bumrah bowled only four overs in first session of day 2
The most baffling of strategic decisions from captain Rohit Sharma was that Bumrah bowled only four overs in the first session of day 2.
In his first spell on day 2, Bumrah dismissed Nathan McSweeney and Steve Smith. And then he was not only surprisingly removed from the attack, but shockingly didn’t bowl at all in the rest of the first session.
Head then feasted merrily on Siraj, Rana, and Ashwin and raced to 53(67) by the end of the session. He was set by then and went even harder in the second session.
It still remains puzzling why Bumrah bowled only four overs in that morning session, while he had bowled spells of 7-8 overs in Perth. With Head new to the crease, India should have attacked the left-hander with their main weapon. Captain Rohit Sharma will have plenty of questions to answer after the match.