30 minutes of madness

All it took for India to convert a position of promise to a position of direstraits was just 30 minutes. When India loses this series, this 30 minutes of madness will prove pivotal. It started with the needless and unnecessary runout of Jaiswal and it ended with the tame dismissal of Akash Deep. Ofcourse, India do not deserve to win the series if the batting continues in this fashion. It is only just that they do not qualify for the WTC Finals in 2025. How many times have the Indian batsmen faltered over the last year, in the first innings goes on and on and on. At the end of the day, Cummins could not hide his delight while talking to the host broadcaster with the turn of events. Any captain will be pleased with that sudden change.

First, there was the unnecessary and ill-advised change at the top of the order. Rahul is the best Indian batsman of this tour. He is batting pretty well as an opener. It took a special Cummins delivery to get rid of him. What was the need to change that combination? Rohit Sharma is as clueless while batting as he is on the field. It really is a shame that Ashwin could not be the captain after Kohli. Rohit came and he went. That is all we can say about his batting. Here we were, chasing a daunting total of 474 and what does Rohit do? He plays a nothing shot, it wasn’t a pull nor was it a jab. It just poked at an innocuous delivery from Cummins. The entire Australian nation would have been laughing at that dismissal.

The easiest wicket one could get

I can imagine that Jason Gillespie, at his age, picking up the phone and talking to Cummins and wanting to bowl as soon as he saw Rohit Sharma striding to the crease. He could have relished at the prospect a picking up a cheap wicket at his age. Here was a batsman, with an highest score of 62 in Australia, who is averaging 10 on this tour, walking in to face the new-ball. It was utter madness. Even a kid, who is learning the game, would have fancied his chances against Rohit. During the course of is lightning stay, Rohit notched up a shameful record. During the 2024-25 season, he averages 11.07, the second lowest by an Indian in a season. The lower is 10.00 by Chandu Sarwate in 1947. What a shame.

Ideally, as soon as Rohit witnessed India win the first Test, must he resigned his captaincy and handed it over to Bumrah. Rohit is 38 with his best days behind him. Perhaps, he can still continue in ODI for about a year but he must announce his retirement with immediate effect and let Bumrah takeover at Sydney or else, risk getting dropped.

Coming to the 30 minutes of madness

Jaiswal hit the ball towards mid-off and took off for a run. Kohli was with his back towards him and by the time Kohli could see him, Jaiswal was standing 3 feet from him. There was no way Jaiswal could have gone back. To be fair to Kohli, there wasn’t a single for Pat Cummins was not in the traditional mid-off region but must too closer to the non-striker. Jaiswal misjudged the single but he was fully committed and kept on running. It certainly seemed that Jaiswal was under some pressure to go to the other end. Why? One could not tel because at that stage, he was batting beautifully that it looked like India will go to stumps with about 25% of the runs shaved off of the Australian total with no further damage.

Everyone was undone just in the space of 5 overs. The Jaiswal run-out was followed by yet another poke outside the offstump by Kohli and then the wicket of Akash Deep to end the nightmarish few overs. I just do not understand the concept of nightwatchman. If your specialist batsman is incapable of negotiating 4-5 overs at the end, what is the point him in the team? Akash Deep had just a couple of hours earlier, returned to the pavilion after bowling 26 overs in the intense Melbourne heat. He would have expected to nice rest for the reminder of the day. Instead, he was asked to go in as a nightwatchman. Rishabh Pant and even Jadeja made to the crease anyway.

Nightwatchman? Really?

It can be said that it was only a nightwatchman who got out but the entire complexion changes in the overall scheme of the game. As for the runout, it would have been better if Kohli had sacrificed his wicket. If at all someone is going to score a daddy hundred, it was Jaiswal. His wicket was more valuable than Kohli’s.

Five years ago, Kohli was the insurance against a top-order collapse and also to strengthen a position of solidity. Nowadays, Kohli has become a sitting duck. He certainly looks like someone who wants to be anywhere in the world than a cricketing field. I do not know how long will his stupid outbursts and lack of performance be tolerated.

As for Australia, they absolutely ran raggard in the morning with 170 runs in just about 30 overs. Anyone and everyone contributed. It is a good batting track but Indians have failed to take advantage of it. Back in 2011, Ricky Ponting, who begged for a run during the previous 3 years, scored a couple of double hundreds against India. Much the same could be said about Steve Smith.

Wrapping up 30 minutes of madness

Well, India are down and out of this Test. Pant, Jadeja, Sundar and Nitish cannot be counted to overhaul the Australian total. The game will probably finish on the 4^th day or the 3^rd day itself if Cummins imposes follow on.