Pat Cummins led Australia cruises to easy 10-wicket win over India to level Border Gavaskar series

Millions of Indian fans pinned their hopes on Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy for some magic on day 3 of the Adelaide Test. Australia exhibited complete control with the ball as they wrapped up the innings inside the first session of play. Rohit Sharma and his side will now travel to Brisbane, with the third Test set to start on 14th December. 

Pant failed to add any runs to his overnight score to fall in the first over of the day. Mitchell Starc found the edge off Pant’s bat as Steve Smith took an easy catch in the slips. Harshit Rana was the next to be dismissed when he was out for a duck after facing 12 balls. Pat Cummins bowled a terrific short ball to dismiss India’s pace bowler. 

Nitish Reddy yet again was the best batter for India, with a valiant knock off 42 runs from 47 balls. The youngster hit 6 fours and a six before he tried to upper Pat Cummins over the third-man region, only to be caught by Nathan McSweeney. 

Mohammed Siraj swung his bat around to score 7 runs before he tried to heave pacer Scott Boland, only to be caught by Travis Head to end the innings. Team India were bowled out for 175 to give Australia a target of just 19 runs. 

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Australian openers didn’t break any sweat in pursuit of such a small total, as they won the game by ten wickets. This is a huge confidence booster for Pat Cummins and his side going into the final three matches of the series. On the other hand, this is a huge blow for India, who had built good momentum after winning in Perth. 

One of the key concerns will be batting form and application as shown by India’s batters. Virat Kohli failed to fire with the bat after his terrific ton in the second innings of the Perth Test. Skipper Rohit Sharma, who moved to the middle order, scored a total of 9 runs in the game and saw his abysmal form with the bat continue. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored a brilliant 161 in the first game, was good in patches during the 2nd match. Shubman Gill had a steady return to Test cricket with scores of 31 and 28. KL Rahul, after being given the chance to open, failed to fire, scoring 37 and 7 in the game, while Rishabh Pant’s approach will also be questioned. 

Only Nitish Kumar Reddy has put up his hands and done well, top scoring in both innings and also taking a wicket. As far as the bowling goes, both Bumrah and Siraj did well to pick 4 wickets. Harshit Rana will be the bowler who will be under the scanner, as he was smashed for 86 runs from his 16 overs.

Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir will have lots to ponder over before the third Test match starts on Saturday. Australia, on the other hand, has no such worries, as they have ticked all the boxes and continued their fine run in Pink Ball matches. This is their 12th win in this variant of the game and their 2nd successive win over India after the 2020 triumph.