WTC final review: India must lick their wounds, glean lessons from loss against Australia  

And so, India’s quest to shed the tag of the bridesmaid in ICC tournaments continues. For the fourth time since 2014, India have been bested in the final of a global tournament, the latest setback a mere formality once Australia, having been put in, amassed 327 for three on day one of the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) at The Oval in London.

Right from the off, it was obvious that India had to be at their absolute best to get the better of a crack Australian outfit that was at full strength despite the absence through injury of Josh Hazlewood, their strapping paceman who was ruled out due to a side strain. Australia had enough potent replacements for Hazlewood, not least Scott Boland, who filled the giant shoes admirably with timely strikes including the massive scalps in the second innings of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.

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India were desperately short on game-changers once it was clear that Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah wouldn’t be available. Once the big guns didn’t deliver with any degree of consistency or efficacy, it was one-way traffic all the way, Australia’s commanding margin of 209 runs perfectly illustrative of the brand of cricket the two sides played over four days and one session in the title clash.

Wrong choices?

Given the perfect vision that hindsight presents, it’s tempting to lay the blame for India’s defeat at the altar of a couple of 50-50 calls, among them the choice to leave out R Ashwin, the No. 1 Test bowler in the world, and the move to bowl first on Wednesday on winning the toss. In a way, the two decisions were inter-linked; once India decided to go with four quicks and Jadeja, they had no option but to send the opposition in, especially given the overhead and underfoot conditions that begged to be exploited.

To take the field first up wasn’t a defensive move, as is being projected in some quarters. It wasn’t intended to protect the batsmen; instead, it was designed to give the Mohammed Shami-led pace attack the best conditions in which to confront the Australian batsmen, but a lack of consistency and the inability to maintain sustained pressure for extended periods meant Australia’s release shot wasn’t that far away.

Still, to have Australia down at 73 for three, one delivery after lunch on the first morning, wasn’t shabby by any stretch of the imagination. Another strike in the next half-hour or so would not only have justified Rohit Sharma’s decision to bowl first but also allowed India a look at the Australian middle and lower orders. As it transpired, Steve Smith and Travis Head, the former with customary composure and the latter with tremendous authority, repelled India’s designs with a double-century stand after which, beyond the extraordinary, there was only going to be one winner.

Saturated by T20

It is tempting, in the wake of the result, to blame India’s significantly below par display on the Indian Premier League. After all, nine of India’s playing XI played for extended periods in the 20-over extravaganza and therefore they were hung over with the T20 demands, weren’t they? By contrast, only David Warner and Cameron Green of the Australian XI were an integral part of the IPL. And yet, where Australia were able to warm up almost immediately after coming in from the cold – a majority of their side played no cricket of any ilk for nearly two and a half months – India couldn’t summon the fortitude and the strength of mind to soldier on, shortcomings that had little-to-nothing to do with their IPL commitments.

It’s about time India’s vast legion of fans come to terms with the fact that while their heroes constitute a good side, even a very, very good one at that, they aren’t simply good enough to be crowned champions. Defeats in three different formats in four finals – in the T20 World Cup (2014), the 50-over Champions Trophy (2017) and the WTC finals (in 2021 and 2023) would point to an inability to rise to the occasion when it matters the most, a more fundamental and vexing problem than the IPL that is a convenient punching bag, but more often sinned against than the sinner.

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India lost this game in the two first innings when they allowed Australia to pile up 469 and then responded with a feeble 296. Especially after having chosen to bowl first, they had no business conceding as many runs as they did; perhaps it was that they read the pitch and the conditions wrong – which would indicate that the fault lay also in part with the backroom staff, headed by the decorated Rahul Dravid who himself must be feeling the heat – and bowled when they should have batted, or that they didn’t have the depth in the bowling attack to justify such a move.

Had they plumped for offie Ashwin instead of Umesh Yadav or Shardul Thakur, they would have opted to bat first, which would have been the more judicious option given that after the first couple of hours, the demons disappeared and the first day was excellent for batting, as Smith and Head illustrated.

Australia’s relentless streak

Then, in some of the finest batting conditions of the match, India’s top order was laid threadbare by Australia’s honest quicks. They were more relentless than unplayable, and for all the hype surrounding Gill, Rohit, Pujara and especially Virat Kohli, India were shown up for their boast. Kohli’s dismissals in both innings must surely be cause for concern finally, because they have been far too similar in the past for there not to be a pattern.

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In the first innings, his penchant to commit to the front foot meant he had nowhere to go once Mitchell Starc procured extra bounce while in the second, he drove flat-footedly at a wide delivery that did not deserve so much as a second glance. Sometimes, tall claims are better left for after a game of this magnitude is over and done with, because cricket doesn’t always reward bravado and bluster with commensurate results.

Even if India were to make the WTC final for a third straight time in 2025, a half-dozen of this current lot is unlikely to be around to mount another challenge. For now, India must lick their wounds, admit (if only to themselves) that they were comprehensively outclassed, and start to look forwards while drawing lessons from what has just transpired. Their passionate fans deserve better, at the very least. One wonders how long it will be before they start to lose heart, and patience.