Australia vs India 2018-19, Test series: 3 reasons why Australia lost the first Test

India outplayed Australia to win the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar series by 31 runs on Monday. In the process, India became only the second Asian side to win the first Test of a series in Australia after Pakistan in 1977. Cheteshwar Pujara's resilient batting, Ravichandran Ashwin's fluidic bowling and Rishabh Pant's world-record equalling 11 catches were the talking points of India's dominance.

Australia, on the other hand, made some blunders which led them slipping further and further away from winning the Test. We pick out three reasons why the Kangaroos lost the game to India at the Adelaide Oval.

#1 Nullification of Mitchell Starc

The threat carried by Mitchell Starc was nullified by India

Coming into this Test match, Australia and New South Wales left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc carried a lot of threat to India. However, the latter's famed batting lineup negated him with ease and nullified his threat. Starc ended with 2-63 and 3-40 in the game.

Indian batsmen have traditionally struggled to play left-arm quicks and failed to pick the angle with ease. However, at Adelaide, Ajinkya Rahane in the second innings and Cheteshwar Pujara in both the innings played him with comfort and ease. Once Australia's number one bowler was seen off, the game was merry-merry all the way for India.

#2 Lack of fight in Aussie batsmen

Usman Khawaja hits the ball in the air

Australian batsmen may not be as technically blessed or aesthetically gifted as their Indian counterparts but historically, they have shown the stomach for a fight and an unwillingness to take things lying down. In Adelaide, however, Australia's batsmen captivated meekly and surrendered to India's bowling attack.

Usman Khawaja was touted to carry the weight of the nation on his shoulders but he failed to capitalise on good starts. The rest of Australia's batsmen were too inexperienced and incapable to stage a comeback into the game. Travis Head showed application and determination but sadly his was the only case.

#3 Lack of imagination in Tim Paine's captaincy

Tim Paine

Tim Paine's captaincy left a lot to be demanded and he was found wanting in a lot of areas. Whenever India were trying to attack, instead of luring them into making mistakes, Paine got defensive and allowed them to get easy runs.

Leaving out Mitchell Marsh may be a controversial call given that the all-rounder has had highly inconsistent runs with the bat but perhaps he would have given their batting and bowling line-up a bit of stability.