India’s defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final on Sunday underlined the cricket-mad country’s lack of success in global tournaments and has thrown the future of their frontline batters into doubt.
India’s much-vaunted top order let them down at The Oval, where Australia secured a 209-run victory to be crowned Test cricket’s world champions.
India, who lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand in 2021, put up scores of 296 and 234 in their two innings but those figures fell far short of what was required to deliver a first global title since the 50-overs Champions Trophy in 2013.
“Superstars flop yet again,” read a headline in Monday’s Times of India newspaper, which mourned the team’s “sustained failures on the big occasion”.
