Adelaide, Dec 19: With shock and amazement, the cricket fraternity reacted to the nightmare that the Indian team endured in broad daylight before crumbling to its lowest-ever Test score of 36 here on Saturday.
India’s much-vaunted batting line-up was blown away by the menacing pace duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood as Australia recorded a convincing eight-wicket win inside two and half days in the opening Day/Night Test.
“The OTP to forget is 49204084041,” former India opener Virender Sehwag tweeted in reference to the batsmen’s sequence of scores in the second innings.
Sehwag’s idol, Sachin Tendulkar, conceded India were outclassed.
“With the way India batted & bowled in the 1st innings, they were in the driver’s seat, but the Aussies came back really hard this morning.
“That is the beauty of Test cricket. It’s NEVER over till it’s over. India was outclassed in the 2nd half. Congratulations to Australia!” Tendulkar wrote.
While pointing out the current batsmen’s defensive frailties, former batsmen Sanjay Manjrekar observed, “36 will no doubt be looked at in isolation & should be too, but here’s India’s totals in last 3 Tests (2 in NZ) when the ball has moved around – 165, 191, 242, 124, 244, 36.”
“Clearly India needs to improve its defensive skills. Easier said than done in today’s environment.”
After the abject surrender, former England skipper Michael Vaughan remarked, “Told ya … India are going to get hammered in the Test Series.” (PTI)
