Jasprit Bumrah shines as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma falter, saving India in Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Despite the crushing defeat against New Zealand on home soil, there was a sense of hope and optimism as India began their campaign to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with their first five-Test tour of Australia since 1991-92. With a core group of experienced players including skipper Rohit Sharma, former captain Virat Kohli, pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, who had all previously performed well in Australia, it was believed that the team's batsmen would thrive on pitches where the ball came on to the bat rather than on the spin-friendly tracks that had caused their downfall against the Kiwis.

That optimism seemed well founded when, in Rohit’s absence, India made a terrific start in Perth with an authoritative 295-run win. Kohli made a second-innings hundred, Rahul was terrific as opener in both innings, Bumrah was Player of the Match for his eight innings and his inspirational leadership. As it turned out, that was a false dawn. Bumrah continued to light up all venues, finishing with 32 wickets when back spasms kept him out of perhaps the most crucial day of the series, but the rest were disappointing, Kohli and Rohit particularly so.

Here's a look at how the five stalwarts went over the last seven weeks:

ROHIT SHARMA (31 runs in 5 innings, average 6.20, highest 10): A horror run of scores during the home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand spilled over to Australia. Rohit gave up his opening spot to Rahul following the latter’s 201-run stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal in Perth, struggled to get his feet going at No. 6, returned to open in Melbourne and still looked terribly out of touch. The strains of his lack of runs spilled over to his captaincy as well. Imaginative and proactive until two and a half months back, Rohit allowed things to drift when Australia got on top. His decision to opt out of the decider in Sydney was selfless and unprecedented in Indian cricket, but it also spoke to his lack of self-confidence in his own abilities presently. Rohit has clarified that Test retirement is not on his mind. Whether he continues to figure in the selectors’ plans at the start of the next World Test Championship cycle in England in June remains to be seen.

VIRAT KOHLI (190 runs in 9 innings, average 23.75, highest 100*): Australia has invariably brought the best out of Kohli from the time he posted his maiden Test hundred in Adelaide in 2012, but this is a series he’d like to forget in a hurry. His unbeaten century in the Perth second innings promised to be a precursor to a series of plenty, but an old failing and the subsequent inability to find a cure to his sustained problems outside the off-stump combined to consign him to a string of failures. Australia’s relentlessness, best exemplified by Scott Boland – who dismissed Kohli four times – resulted in all eight dismissals to catches behind the stumps. Five-Test series have a way of magnifying technical and temperamental inadequacies, as Kohli himself will remember from 2014, when he made only 134 runs in ten innings in England. To keep making the same mistake time after time didn’t behove a batter with 16 years’ experience of international cricket, one who is hailed as among the premier batters of his generation.

KL RAHUL (276 runs in 10 innings, average 30,66, highest 84): With Rahul, it has become a habit in recent times of beginning an overseas series strongly and fading away gradually. The tale began in England in 2021, spilled over to South Africa and extended to that same country in 2023-24. It was no surprise, therefore, that after two half-centuries and two other scores of more than 25 in his first five innings, he downsized to efforts of 4*, 24, 0, 4 and 13 in the second half. It didn’t help his cause that he was yo-yoed from No. 2 to No. 3 to No. 2 again, though with 58 Tests under his belt, he is better prepared than many to meet that challenge. Without a doubt, opening the batting was the toughest proposition on lively pitches against an exceptional attack, but Rahul will feel he should have done more to capitalise on a great beginning to the series and on his skipper dropping down the order so that he could flourish in the opening slot with which he is so comfortable.

RISHABH PANT (255 runs in 9 innings, average 28.33, highest 61): Pant had been a model of consistency on his first tour of Australia six years back, crowning India’s first series triumph Down Under with an unbeaten 159 in Sydney. Two years later, he backed up 97 in Sydney with a magnificent unbeaten 89 at the Gabba which consigned Australia to their first defeat in Brisbane in 33 years. Again, he saved his best for last with the second-fastest Test half-century by an Indian, off just 29 deliveries, in the second innings of the last Test in Sydney, but it was too little and way too late from the team’s standpoint. Pant topped 20 in seven of his nine innings but touched 40 just twice, caught betwixt and between. His shot-selection was questionable in both innings in Melbourne and he didn’t resemble the free spirit he is until the final innings of the series, when he slipped back into beast mode with a 33-ball 61. All told, underwhelming in the final analysis, especially given the responsibility on his shoulders as the designated No. 5.

JASPRIT BUMRAH (32 wickets, average 13.06, economy 2.76, strike-rate 28.3, best 6/76): Not just India’s best performer, but also the Player of the Series, Bumrah was a compelling figure who instilled awe and dread in the Aussie batters. Bumrah came to Australia as the biggest threat and emerged with his reputation enhanced, reiterating why he is considered the best all-format bowler in the world right now. Support came from the tireless Mohammed Siraj, desperately unlucky to not pick up more than 20 wickets, but it was when Bumrah had the ball in hand that everything else came to a standstill. Australia’s batters couldn’t praise him highly enough, the audience thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated his craft even if it came at the expense of their own heroes. It took a pesky, fearless 19-year-old for Bumrah to openly showcase his aggressive, competitive streak. Sam Konstas took the fight to Bumrah and didn’t do so too badly, but apart from those brief periods, Bumrah was virtually unplayable. A shame that backs spasms prevented him from one final hurrah on potentially the spiciest surface of the series at the SCG.

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