‘India was carrying the hangover of the dominance’ - Sanjay Manjrekar on India’s massive loss in Indore against Australia

After dominating Australia in the first two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, team India suffered an embarrassing nine-wicket defeat in the third Test in Indore. In both innings of the third Test, the Rohit Sharma-led side collapsed to spin as they never looked like the favourites to win the match.

With that, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the hosts were a little too overconfident and were carrying the hangover of their dominance from the first two Tests. He also stated that the players were trying to dominate Australia a bit too early and because of which, they were playing too many attacking shots, without properly assessing the conditions.

“I got the impression that India was carrying the hangover of the dominance that they had in the series so far,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.

“They (India) won the toss and batted first for the first time. 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,” he added.

That is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do: Ravi Shastri

Former head coach Ravi Shastri too wasn’t impressed with India’s approach in the third Test. The 60-year-old believes that the Indian team was complacent and a little bit overconfident and that’s the reason they suffered a defeat in Indore. Shastri also stated that the Indian team took things for granted and dropped the guard in the third Test.

“That is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do where you take things for granted, you drop guard and this game will bring you down. I think it was a combination of all these things when you actually cast your mind back to the first innings, see some of the shots played, see some of the over-eagerness to try and dominate in these conditions. You reflect back, take a step back or two to analyse,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

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