Batters did not do justice to their talent. If you look at the Indian wickets, it’s the Indian batters who got themselves out, playing shots anticipating what the pitch would do, Gavaskar told Star Sports.
If you look there is a lack of confidence because in the first two matches, they did not get runs, apart from Rohit Sharma, who got a lovely hundred in Nagpur. When you run out of runs, their batting becomes a little more tentative. And you can tell they were worried about the deliveries.
They were unable to go as far down the pitch as they should have. They let the pitch take them over. It was the pitch that started to play on their minds, even in the first, but especially in the second innings, he added.
Despite the defeat, India maintains a 2-1 lead in the four-match Test series and has already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After opting to bat first, India fell 60-70 runs short in the first innings, according to Gavaskar.
The pitch started talking in the first hour itself, so it wasn’t going to be easy, but if we had made 160-170 in the first innings, that could have made the difference, said the batting legend.
Marnus Labuschagne was given two lives in Australia’s first innings of the Indore Test, on 0 and 8. The batter played on to a ‘no ball’ from Ravindra Jadeja before India erred by not requesting a DRS.
Asked about the no ball, Gavaskar said: If you look back, you will say that is probably what cost India the match because after that they (Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja) stitched a partnership of 96 when India were dismissed for 109.
So I believe that was the tipping point. India lost the game because of that no-ball. The fourth and final Test of the series will begin on March 9 in Ahmedabad.
