Kohli, youngsters & Bumrah – talking points from Australia’s win over India

Australia’s series win against India “lived up to the hype” according to captain Pat Cummins.

The series shifted one way and the other, with some outstanding performers and some unfavorable ones.

What can Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes learn from their Border-Gavaskar duels in the future of Test cricket, aside from a one-off game against Zimbabwe in May?

How frequently does a captain drop himself? Due to the birth of his second child, Rohit Sharma missed the first Test, but despite poor performance in the subsequent three games, he “opted to rest” in Sydney’s must-win series finale.

The 37-year-old scored 31 runs in five innings – an average of 6.20 – with a high score of 10.

It follows a general decline for the right-hander, with his 23.1 average since December 2023 the second lowest among batters to score 400-plus runs in that time (behind only New Zealand’s Tom Blundell).

His struggles are stark against the flow, with his career average of 37.5 points per hour. He’s being dismissed every 28.4 balls by a seamer, compared to 69 across his career.

That might be the result of a new, unanticipated weakness. It was a great strength, with his average of 58.4 off the back foot until November 2023 among the top 25% of players.

Since the start of December 2023 though, that average has dropped to 16.4 – the lowest of all players.

Speaking after the defeat in Sydney, India head coach Gautam Gambhir said: “I can’t talk about the future of any player, it’s up to them as well.

Virat Kohli was another Indian batter who struggled. He scored 190 runs at an average of 23.75, but that is helped by one century. He had five single-figure scores in eight other innings.

Similarly to Rohit, it is a trend in Kohli’s career. From his debut to 2019 he averaged 54.97, but that has dropped to 30.72 since 2020. It drops even further to 22.47 in his past 10 Tests.

Since the start of 2024, his average of 23.2 is the ninth lowest among players with a minimum of 10 innings.

There are ways to target him, despite the fact that he is still capable of great innings and moments and is still as upbeat as ever on the field.

After Kohli was settled at the crease, Australia seamer Scott Boland revealed that their plans included moving all of Kohli’s dismissals to the fifth stump.

Up until 2019, Kohli averaged 61 on the drive, but that number has dropped to 33.4.

In that first time period, he was dismissed once in every 96 defensive shots, but has dropped to 43 between 2020 and 2023 and 24 in his recent poor run.

His struggles outside off stump are well documented.

Since the start of 2020 Kohli averages just 11.1 to good &amp, back-of-length deliveries in the channel. Since the start of 2024 his average is 3.71, with seven dismissals in 11 innings. For comparison the global average for top-order batters (one to four) is 19.84 between 2011 and 2025.

Two batters that did perform for India were 23-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal and 21-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Jaiswal averaged 43.44 on his first tour of Australia, while all-rounder Reddy averaged 37.25.

Sam Konstas, 19, was called up for the first three games because of Australia’s top-order struggles, and he quickly jumped ship by ramping Jasprit Bumrah and altering with Kohli on Boxing Day.

In the fifth game, Mark Waugh, a former Australian player, told Fox Cricket that Konstas “would have a target on his back “if he” kept acting like he is because more words were exchanged with Bumrah also.

Although Konstas’ average of 28.25 makes his place in the series against England unlikely, all three appear set to play for India and Australia, respectively.

His defense is weak, despite his strong defense against balls on the pads and full deliveries. His 61 percent of false shots came from the forward defense, compared to 56% from the back foot.

When the ball was seaming back in, the right-hander also attempted 10 false shots with 15 balls. England should concentrate on that area.

Could England use Josh Hull in this Test match against England despite Jaiswal’s strong start to the season and his six innings of being dismissed by left-arm seamers? His average against moving balls is only 19.7, too.

Australia’s seamers had to do some heavy lifting due to Josh Hazlewood’s injury, a lack of power from spinner Nathan Lyon (nine wickets at 36.88) and Mitchell Marsh (three wickets at 46.33).

Under Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland, unsure of their futures, but the veteran trio helped Australia win the series.

Cummins claimed 25 wickets at 21.36, Starc 18 at 28.66 and Boland, despite only playing three games, 21 at 13.19.

Starc and Cummins were responsible for 48.8% of Australia’s overs in the series – up from 41.7% in home Tests the past two years.

Cummins’ average speed increased slightly in the series (85.1% on average in the first eighteenth), but Starc’s average speed was actually at its highest in Sydney (80.7%).

They will face a similar challenge, in terms of turnaround between matches, in next winter’s Ashes but, after February’s tour of Sri Lanka, their only Test before the Ashes is the World Test Championship final against South Africa in June. They have time for rest.

They weren’t often helped by their batters in this series either. Since the start of 2024, Australia has lost three points or less than 100 on thirteen occasions.

That team has the fifth-worst run-per-missal average among the nine Test Championship teams, which is third-lowest for the top three, with 27.4 runs per dismissal.

We are at a loss for words to sum up Jasprit Bumrah’s genius. His 32 wickets came at 13.06.

He consistently averaged 84mph and 58% of his deliveries were on a good length, bringing 15 wickets at 10.73.

He averaged 5.3 with his hard-length balls too, so England will need to target fuller-length deliveries, where his economy rate climbed to 5.66, to score runs.

The support he receives is the issue for India.

Mohammed Siraj had a good series, claiming 20 wickets at 31.15, but the pair were responsible for 49% of the balls India delivered and 61% among seamers.

In the final Test, Prasidh Krishna took six wickets, but Harshit Rana and Akash Deep both managed 54 and 50.75.

Mohammed Shami’s absence was a result of his knee swelling, which he had been looking for to increase his workload before returning. He would add another dimension to India’s attack.

The spin department is now a question too after Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement.

In three Test matches, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja both took just four and three wickets, respectively.

One option is Axar Patel, who has only played two Test matches outside of Asia, while Kuldeep Yadav has only played two.