"India was carrying the hangover of the dominance that they had in the series so far" - Sanjay Manjrekar on hosts' first-innings collapse

Sanjay Manjrekar feels India's hangover from their dominance in the first two matches caused their first-innings batting collapse in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Rohit Sharma and Co. registered convincing wins in the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series. They folded for 109 in their first innings of the recently concluded third Test in Indore and eventually lost the match by nine wickets.

While reviewing the game on Star Sports, Manjrekar attributed the hosts' below-par first-innings performance to their previous domination in the series, saying:

"I got the impression that India was carrying the hangover of the dominance that they had in the series so far. They won the toss and batted first for the first time."

Manjrekar believes India were too hasty while taking the aggressive route on the first day in Indore, elaborating:

"So immediately the onus was on them to call the shots in the game and I thought they were just trying to dominate a bit too early and didn't suss the pitch out. So too many attacking shots under the assumption that they knew the pitch and that is where I guess where India faltered."

India got off to a flying start in the first innings, with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill scoring 26 runs in the first five overs. However, the introduction of spin in the sixth over in the form of Matthew Kuhnemann changed the complexion of the game, with the Indian skipper getting stumped while trying to play a big shot and the innings nosediving thereafter.

---

"Once they turned their attention to Ashwin and even Umesh Yadav, the game completely changed" - Sanjay Manjrekar on India's comeback

Umesh Yadav bowled an excellent spell with the old ball in Australia's first innings. [P/C: BCCI]

Sanjay Manjrekar pointed out that Rohit's move to bowl Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav in tandem towards the latter stages of Australia's first innings brought India back into the game, observing:

"That was a great turnaround. I thought there was a little extra indulgence with Jadeja, looking at him as the only bowler who was going to get you wickets, and once they turned their attention to Ashwin and even Umesh Yadav, the game completely changed."

"So good captaincy to go eventually to those two guys and I thought Ashwin did the major work of getting two good batters out in Handscomb and Alex Carey and Umesh Yadav getting the huge wicket of Cameron Green was a big plus. So the game completely turned on its head."

Australia lost their last six wickets for just 11 runs and were bowled out for 197, with a first-innings lead of 88 runs. The late-order collapse gave the hosts a chance to stage a comeback in the game but they were dismissed for 163 in their second innings. That left Steve Smith and Co. with a lowly 76-run fourth-innings target, which they achieved with ease.