India captain Rohit Sharma on Friday (March 3) said his team lacked courage and game in the third Test against Australia but described the nine-wicket haul as “a strange game”. After trailing 0-2 in the series and conceding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia fought back mightily to record a memorable victory and secure their place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final over Rank Turner at the Holkar Stadium.
“When you are playing on challenging pitches, you have to bowl. We let their bowlers bowl at one place. For not taking any credit from his bowlers, especially Nathan Lyon. We had to try and be brave, which I think we weren’t,” Rohit said at the presentation ceremony.
Lyon returned excellent figures of 8/64 in India’s second innings to pave the way for an Australian victory. “It can be a weird game where things don’t come together, but still you need players to come together and help. We wanted some players to stand but it did not happen. We were a little behind and we didn’t apply ourselves the way we wanted to.”
Rohit and Co. haven’t started thinking about the fourth Test in Ahmedabad but said the team will need to regroup quickly after the heavy defeat. “When you lose a Test match, there are a lot of things that don’t go in our favour. To start with, we didn’t bat well in the first innings. We understand how important it is to get runs on the board in the first innings. And obviously when they got a lead of 80-90 runs, we needed a big performance with the bat but we couldn’t do that.
“Honestly, we haven’t thought about it (Ahmedabad Test) yet. We have just finished this test so we need to regroup and try again. We need to understand that we need to improve as a team.
The hosts were bowled out for 163 in their second inningsAustralia were left behind with a target of just 76 runs. One of the biggest architects of the Australian victory was veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon, who took eight wickets in India’s second innings on the second day of the match.
“Our bowlers did really well, especially (Matthew) Kuhnmann. All our bowlers contributed. With the bat, Usman (Khwaja) was really good in the first innings. We have made some good partnerships.
Australia won the third Test by 9 wickets. #TeamIndia __ will aim to return in the fourth and final #INDvAUS Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ____
scorecard __ https://t.co/t0IGbs2qyj @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/M7acVTo7ch
– BCCI (@BCCI) March 3, 2023
“India bowled really well in the back end, we were a bit let down. We had to work hard yesterday, Puji (Pujara) played a good innings, but all our bowlers did really well. It was a perfect performance in the end.
Smith is replacing regular skipper Pat Cummins, who had to return home after the second Test to be with his ailing mother. “We’re looking forward to Patty coming back home, our thoughts are with her. But I really enjoyed this week. I love captaining in this part of the world. I think I’ll be able to handle a lot of the intricacies.” Understand. It’s a venue I really enjoy and I think I’ve done a fair job this week. The approach will be pretty similar. We’ll have to see how things go. It’s nice to be in the final of the WTC but it It’s just about playing good cricket.