#INDvsAUS: 7 reasons why India did not win WTC final-

Pat Cummins led Australia were the favorites to win this match after Day 4 but India still had a chance to win the Final match on the final day of the WTC Final. Kohli and Rahane faced no difficulties in the first hour of the final day but as time passed Australia's bowling attack started to showcase a stunning performance. Australia won the WTC Final by 209 runs and added the only missing trophy missing in their cabinet.

 

And once again India failed to win an ICC title and second World Test Championship final

 

 

1. The toss mattered. Though The Oval pitch was light green in colour before the start of the match and conditions were overcast at the toss, India thought short-term at the time. It reaped rewards for a little while before Australia took control of the proceedings as the sun came out and the pitched eased out for the batters.

 

India's record in Tests they have opted to bowl first is Matches - 58, Won - 9, Lost - 21, Draw - 28. It says all. "I thought we started well with winning the toss and we bowled pretty well in the first session. Then we let ourselves down," Indian captain Rohit Sharma said while talking about the toss.

 

2. Exclusion of R Ashwin affected a lot. India made the bold decision to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin - the highest wicket taker of the team in this year's WTC - and instead chose to play an extra seamer in Umesh Yadav, who leaked a lot of runs in the first innings.

 

 

After India was defeated, Sachin Tendulkar expressed disappointment for not picking Ashwin in the playing XI. "I fail to understand the exclusion of @ashwinravi99 in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world. Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don't always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters," tweeted Sachin.

 

3. Bowlers failed. India's head coach Rahul Dravid speaking about the loss admitted, "It was not a 469 pitch. Gave away too many in the last session (on Day 1). We knew what lines and lengths to bowl. Our lengths were not bad but we probably bowled too wide."

 

4. Batting failed! The biggest reason behind India's defeat in the WTC Final has to be the team's batting failures in both innings. India couldn't even manage to reach 300 in either innings in the match on a pitch where the likes of Travis Head & Steve Smith flourished. The star studded lineup of Rohit, Pujara, Gill and Kohli couldn't even score a single fifty in either innings. Ajinkya Rahane's return to form and his 89 in the first innings was the only positive.

 

5. Third Umpire blunder continues. The wicket of Shubman Gill in the second innings could have been the turning point.

 

6. The workload due to IPL. The players reached London in less than a week with few of the players being busy for IPL final. The majority of the Indian players came off playing a full season of the Indian Premier League 2023. Only Cheteshwar Pujara was in England playing in the County Championship as preparation for the WTC Final. The drastic change from white-ball to red-ball cricket was flagged by experts ahead of the summit clash but the India players were confident that they would be fine with practice ahead of the Final.

 

7. Lack of intent and aggression! The way India started felt like they would easily win the match. But the approach towards batting and bowling could have been better!