Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the Indian batsmen for their poor performance in the third Test against Australia. The match, played on a surface that offered sharp turn and variable bounce, saw India dismissed for 109 and 163 in their two innings, resulting in a nine-wicket win for Australia.
Talking to Star Sports, Gavaskar said that the Indian batters failed to make the most of their talent, with most of the wickets falling due to their own errors in judgement. He attributed this to a lack of confidence resulting from a poor performance in the first two matches, apart from Rohit Sharma's century in Nagpur.
The legendary cricketer also suggested that the Indian batsmen were tentative in their approach due to the lack of runs in the previous matches.
"Batters actually didn't do justice to their talent. If you look at the Indian wickets, you will find it is the Indian batters who got themselves out, playing some shots anticipating that this is what the pitch is going to do," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
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"If you look there is 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 are short of runs, there is just that little tentativeness in their batting. And you can sense that they were feeling for the deliveries, he added.
He observed that the players were feeling for the deliveries instead of going down the pitch as they should have. Gavaskar added that the pitch played on their minds, especially in the second innings.
"They were not able to go down the pitch as much as they should have. They let the pitch overtake them. It was the pitch that actually started to play on their minds, even in the first innings but more so in the second innings," he said.
Despite the loss, India still lead the four-match Test series 2-1 and have already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, Gavaskar believes that India were 60-70 runs short in the first innings, after opting to bat first. He said that the pitch started to talk in the first hour itself and making 160-170 runs in the first innings could have made a difference.
