There are two ways to look at India’s 10-wicket defeat to Australia in Adelaide. One can either choose to shrug it off saying, ‘Oh, we had won the last Test convincingly, so it’s ok... You can’t expect Australia to lose everything at home’. Or maybe there are reasons to be worried as it is India’s fourth loss in their last five Tests, stretching back to the home setback against New Zealand.

To be fair to India, it is indeed quite natural for Australia to be coming back hard at the visitors after the embarrassing 295-run drawback in Perth. Plus, this time it was the pink-ball Test, the kind in which the Aussies have developed unmatched expertise, especially at home.

But Indian cricket has advanced many miles in the last few years. The expectations have increased manifold and after humbling the Aussies Down Under on their last two tours, it is understandable if there’s a lot of talk after one loss.

An India-Australia Test series in this era of T20 tsunamis is the shelter that gives refuge to cricket purists. So the reactions after a win or loss are spontaneous. So social media is flooded with opinions. Some say they are missing Cheteshwar Pujara, while others have trained their guns on coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma.

That aside, it’s a fact that the contrasting results in the two Tests of the five-match series do call for a post-mortem. Why India, who bossed Perth, lost in Adelaide in just over two days? It seems like it’s the sum of many wrongs.

Onus on captain

Rohit isn’t a bad captain, but in Adelaide, his ideas seemed jet-lagged. Especially, while dealing with Travis Head. Like Pujara pointed out, India did not exploit the flamboyant left-hander’s weakness against the short ball appropriately, instead feeding him with balls in his zone. As a result, Head churned out a match-winning innings of 140 off 141 balls. As the captain, Rohit should have issued proper instructions to his bowlers. More so because Head is not an unknown entity. This was the third time since 2023 that Head made an international century with Rohit as the opponent captain. Not doing basic homework in this data-driven age is bewildering.

Botched-up order

Rohit scored 3 and 6 coming in at No. 6 in Adelaide. His discomfort was evident. It is a little odd why he, or the team management, took such a decision. Rohit is comfortable as an opener, the position he has batted in mostly. Yes, KL Rahul scored a 77 in Perth playing as an opener in Rohit’s absence, but was that reason enough for Rohit to demote himself? At the age of 37, it is a bit too much to expect a player to suddenly realign himself in a new batting position. There was no harm in asking Rahul to drop down the order. The 32-year-old has batted in different positions in his international career and seems to fit the role of the bohemian batter better than Rohit. Also, the argument of not disturbing a winning combination doesn’t hold ground as India had already made three changes from their Perth XI.

Batters bungle

India’s 487/6 declared in the second innings in Perth notwithstanding, the team has batted poorly so far in Australia. In the four innings so far, Nitish Kumar Reddy has been the top scorer on three occasions. That sums up the story well. As Rohit said after the loss on Sunday, “When you come to Australia... the best chance of winning a Test match is by putting runs on the board.”

The Indian top order has been found wanting, and the resultant pressure on the middle order has triggered collapses. A good start is half the battle won. Nathan McSweeny and Marnus Labuschagne put on a 67-run stand for the second wicket and saw off the new ball, and that gave Head the platform to launch his rocket-innings. Also, Australia weathered the storm in the tricky twilight period on the first day, but the India batters failed a similar test on the second day evening, losing as many as five wickets.

Too much for Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah won India the first Test with one magic spell. But he’s no magician. The other bowlers must step up. “...you can’t expect Bumrah to bowl from both the ends and from morning to evening,” Rohit said on Sunday. Mohammed Siraj bowled well in patches, while the one-Test-old Harshit Rana went for 5.37 runs per over. That also brings up the question — Was Rana the right choice for the pink-ball Test? Or, would Akash Deep have been a better option? Whoever is taking the decisions, needs to make better calls.

The questions are many. India have about five days to look for answers, before the next Test begins, in Brisbane from Saturday.