Down, but not out: The Hindu Editorial on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
The HinduA decade-long dominance wound to a close at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the second-biggest silverware in terms of stature after the Ashes in cricket, and the biggest on the basis of viewership, has been India’s preserve since 2015. It is no surprise that when Jasprit Bumrah, the most dominant among them, got injured and could not bowl during the Australian second innings chase in the last Test, the host prospered. Having eased out Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane and now dealing with R. Ashwin’s retirement mid-series, the selectors and coach Gautam Gambhir need to look at the future of Virat Kohli, Rohit and Ravindra Jadeja. Rahul’s initial consistency, newcomer Nitish Kumar Reddy’s hundred at Melbourne, and the odd lower-order resistance, bailed out India but that was not enough.