The 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy is living up to its billing. It has been an enthralling contest between the number 1 and number 2 team in the world. India stunned Australia by 295 runs on a fast and bouncy wicket at Perth while the home team gave a resounding reply with a thumping 10-wicket victory in the Day & Night Pink Ball encounter in Adelaide. The Gabba also had its ebbs and flows before the Rain Gods had the final say. The series is now tied at 1-1 with all to play for at the MCG and SCG – the two biggest venues in Australia. While Australia might have won more sessions in the series so far, India would be the happier team given the series scoreline.
From Jasprit Bumrah‘s brilliance with the new ball to KL Rahul‘s redemption as Test opener to the continuing flop show of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – we look at some of the numbers that have defined India’s performance in the series.
Boom Boom Bumrah – highest impact bowler of the series
Jasprit Bumrah has been the bowler par excellence in the series so far. He is comfortably the leading wicket-taker with a tally of 21 dismissals at a sensational average of 10.9, strike rate of 25.1 and economy of 2.6.
Bumrah has been fast, accurate, clever and at times unplayable and has dominated most of the Australian batters in the series. He has been Usman Khwaja’s nemesis dismissing the left-hander four times in five innings at an average of 4.25. Bumrah has got the other Australian opener – Nathan McSweeney – dancing to his tunes as well – getting rid of him also on four occasions in six innings at an average of 3.75.
Bumrah has picked eight wickets with the new ball (struck within the first 15 overs) and broken the opening-wicket stand in all five innings for India! Bumrah led India in the absence of Rohit Sharma at Perth and led their fightback with the ball with an inspiring performance which saw Australia being routed for 104 in the first innings. The Indian speedster returned with magical figures of 5-30 in 18 overs and broke the backbone of the Australian top and middle order.
Bumrah bagged four wickets in Adelaide and led India’s fightback with the second new ball in Brisbane too getting rid of Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head in quick succession in the first innings. 80% of the delivered bowled by Bumrah in the series haven’t been scored off showcasing his immaculate line and length and accuracy, constantly building pressure on the opposition batters.
He has induced a false shot on 26.5% of his deliveries, beaten the bat 8.3% times and got the batter to edge 11.9% of his deliveries. Bumrah has bowled an overwhelming majority (56.2 overs) of his overs in the good length area (6-8 metres) accounting for 16 of his 21 wickets at an average of 8.2.
The return of KL Rahul – the Test opener
KL Rahul – the Test opener – had registered just one fifty in his last 11 innings prior to the current series in Australia. Subsequently, he had been pushed to the middle-order. Skipper Rohit’s absence at Perth forced Rahul to move back to the top of the order in hostile conditions on one of the fastest wickets in the world. However, Rahul accepted the challenge and came out triumphant against a world class pace trio of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. Rahul has been, and by some distance, India’s best batter in the series and the second-highest run-getter overall with an aggregate of 235 runs.
His technique against the moving new ball, temperament and mental toughness have stood out in the three Tests and no batter from either side – not even Travis Head – has occupied the crease for a longer period than the Indian opener. Rahul has faced 490 deliveries in the series and has a Control Percentage of close to 80% – higher than the corresponding percentages for Khawaja and McSweeney. He has defended 51.7% of the deliveries – the highest such percentage amongst the four openers in the series. Rahul’s first standout performance came in the second innings at Perth when he put together an opening-wicket partnership of 201 with Yashasvi Jaiswal paving for the way for a massive Indian victory. It was the first double-century stand by an Indian opening pair in Australia. Rahul consumed 176 deliveries for his patient 77. He had a Control Percentage of 86% in the innings.
Rahul then produced one of the highest impact batting performances of his Test career (and of the series) as he weathered the storm in India’s first innings at The Gabba even as others in the top and middle order failed around him. Rahul anchored India’s innings and scored 84 of the team’s 141 runs before he was dismissed. If not for his contribution, India would have certainly been asked to follow-on and stared at a humiliating defeat in the encounter.
Rohit & Kohli’s abysmal form
India’s two batting stalwarts have been in shocking form in the series. Rohit has scored just 19 runs in three innings while Kohli, with the exception of his hundred in the second innings at Perth, has also failed miserably in his four other innings in the series. While Rohit has looked all at sea in his new position in the middle order, Kohli has been haunted by deliveries on the fourth to sixth stump line in the corridor of uncertainty. All of four dismissals in the series have come fishing at deliveries outside the off stump. Kohli stands outside his crease and then moves down and across so the Australian bowlers have changed their line to the Indian maestro and attack a second and third set of stumps tempting him to go for the expansive drive or play at deliveries in the corridor.
When Kohli was at his peak between 2016 and 2019, he had an average of well in excess 70 against good length and short of good length deliveries at the third and fourth set of stumps. However, lack of runs in the last few years and his corresponding average has fallen drastically to just 8 in 2024. The downfall started in 2020 and it has been on the decline thereafter. Both Rohit and Kohli have had a poor 2024 and questions have been raised about their diminishing utility to the team. While Rohit has an aggregate of 607 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 26.4, Kohli has scored 376 runs in nine matches at an average of 25.06. They have a failure rate of 70.6% & 62.5% in the calendar year.
