Third Test: Are India's batters losing mental battle post-Perth?

Rain and bad light came to the rescue of India on day three of the Brisbane Test on Monday, though it remains to be seen if that’s enough to help the visitors force a stalemate in what’s been a lopsided contest so far. Or will the remaining two days be enough for Australia to inflict a humiliating defeat?

It will require the Indians to bat out of their skins to leave with their heads held high from a venue where barely four years back, they had performed the ‘Heist at the Gabba’. The problem is, ever since that second-innings riposte in the first Test at Perth, built around the marathon opening stand between K.L. Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal and the defiant century from Virat Kohli, the Indian batters seem to be losing the mental battle against their rivals midway through the series.

The underlying theme of surrender was writ large across the dismissal pattern of India's top order — be it a Jaiswal or a Shubman Gill, and not least, Kohli. It’s almost a template now that the triumvirate of Starc-Cummins-Hazlewood will continue to bowl at the ‘channel’, while the extra bounce and seam on these wickets will have the Indians fishing at deliveries to bring about their downfall.

Granted, it’s not easy to resist that expansive cover drive but then, this is where the batter’s character comes into play. The more Kohli has fallen into this rut over the last few years, the more pundits (including his former coach Ravi Shastri) have frequently raked up the example of Sachin Tendulkar sacrificing the cover drive for sessions together, as he went on to compile a masterly 241 at Sydney during the 2004 series. The master, who survived in international cricket for nine more years after that, chose to shelve his ego on that occasion, but who will bell the cat here?

A statistic in the Times of India reveals that in 2024 alone, 12 of Kohli’s 15 Test dismissals have happened as he was shaping to play outside the off-stump, six of them when he was trying to play off the front foot through that corridor of uncertainty and paid the price. Just have a second look at his dismissal off Hazlewood on Monday and it reflects how far he was actually playing from the body.

Strangely enough, Hazlewood was quite muted in his celebration at the fall of Kohli — quite in contrast to previous years, when his prize wicket would usher in the wildest celebrations. Is it because the Aussie fast bowler will be joining Kohli in the same IPL team soon, or simply a gesture to underline that they have sorted India’s premier batter out? It will require a sustained act of defiance on India's part in the rest of the series to throw the gauntlet back to the Aussies.

The biggest X-factor missing from India’s previous two series wins Down Under, no prizes for guessing, has been the reassuring presence of Cheteshwar Pujara at no. 3. There were also many support players who rose to the occasion the last time around, be it stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane, or Hanuma Vihari, or Shardul Thakur, or Washington Sundar, or the bravado of a Rishabh Pant.

Who will put their hands up this time and be counted? It’s now or never !