'India Carrying Hangover of Dominance': Former Cricketer on Why Rohit Sharma And Co Suffered Big Defeat in Indore

After dominating the first two Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India were handed a shock defeat by Australia in Indore allowing the tourists to stage a comeback in the four-match series. It was a sorry show from India with the bat as they collapsed to spin in both their innings.

The toss was won by Rohit Sharma who expectedly opted to bat first but it was a nightmare of a performance from India batters as they were skittled for 109 inside 34 overs with Matthew Kuhnemann taking a five-wicket haul.

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Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar suggests the hosts were a little too confident going into the third Test and they misread the pitch at the Holkar Stadium.

“I got the impression that India was carrying the hangover of the dominance that they had in the series so far,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.

“They (India) won the toss and batted first for the first time. So immediately the onus was on them to call the shots in the game and I thought they were just trying to dominate a bit too early and didn’t suss the pitch out. So too many attacking shots under the assumption that they knew the pitch and that is where I guess where India faltered”, he added.

Australia batted much better than India and had it not been for a batting collapse on the second morning, would have ended up with a sizeable lead. However, an 88-run lead on a raging turner was still enough to put India under pressure who were bowled out for 163 in their second dig.

Australia would chase down the target of 76 comfortably by nine wickets to cut down India’s lead to just one Test and will now be eager to draw the series with Ahmedabad set to host the final match.

Manjrekar wasn’t alone in is assessment of India being a little complacent with former India head coach Ravi Shastri also claiming the team of being overconfident.

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“That is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do where you take things for granted, you drop guard and this game will bring you down. I think it was a combination of all these things when you actually cast your mind back to the first innings, see some of the shots played, see some of the over-eagerness to try and dominate in these conditions. You reflect back, take a step back or two to analyse,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

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