3rd Test: Australia bags 9-wicket win on sub-par Indore pitch; why did India fail? 5 reasons explained

Team India was at the top of its gameplay, outplaying Australia and taking a 2-0 lead in the ongoing four-Test series, retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, the former failed to make it three in a row, losing the third Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore and must wait until the fourth and final Test in Ahmedabad to decide the fate of the series and if it can make it to the Final of the 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship (WTC). In the meantime, we analyse the five reasons the hosts failed to do the job in Indore.

Losing seven wickets in a session
The opening session of Day 1 saw a massive collapse from the Indians, as they lost seven wickets, effectively derailing their progress in the Test. While they appeared to be struggling against the spin, there was a hunch that the batters were looking for some experimentation, leading to the disaster.

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Top-order's failed collective effort
Once again, the top order was in question here. While wicketkeeper-opener KL Rahul was replaced by young opener Shubman Gill, he failed to fire, managing only 21 and five in the two innings. While skipper-cum-opener Rohit Sharma managed 12 in both, Cheteshwar Pujara could manage just a single in the first before he converted it to a gritty 59 in the second. Overall, the top order should have done more.

Spinners struggling to hit consistent lengths
While the Australian spinners were on target since Day 1, the Indian spinners surprisingly failed to hit the deck. Bowling nearly full-length deliveries did no good to Indian spinners' experimentation. Although they generated enough turns, it was not enough to scare the Aussie batters, who also batted smartly.

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Having an open field
At times, the Indians were seen setting up an open field, leading to confusion about the logic behind it when the Australians played a semi-aggressive form of cricket. It allowed the visitors to score single and also hit boundaries at will.

Australia trusting its discipline
Last but not least, visitors must be responsible for sensible batting. Instead, it was a disciplined batting from them, who moved on from their sweep and defensive tactic and adopted a sem-aggressive tactic that somewhat caught India off-guard.