India crash to record low Test cricket score of 36 in eight-wicket First Test defeat to Australia

Captain Virat Kohli scored just four runs in India’s second innings, with no visiting player reaching double figures
AFP via Getty Images
George Flood19 December 2020

India were thrashed by Australia in the First Test at Adelaide after collapsing in embarrassing fashion to record their lowest-ever score in Test cricket.

Virat Kohli’s side were skittled for just 36 in their second innings on day three of the opening day-night contest at the Adelaide Oval and went on to lose the match by eight wickets.

As well as being India’s lowest score in their 88 years of playing Test cricket, it’s also the lowest score recorded by any team this century and in the overall Test arena since 1955, when New Zealand managed just 26 against England in Auckland.

36 is the joint-fifth lowest total ever seen in Test cricket.

India - who made 244 in their first innings, with Kohli hitting 74 - were actually 36-9, but Mohammad Shami was unable to continue due to an arm injury sustained following a delivery from Pat Cummins, who finished with figures of four for 21.

Josh Hazlewood, meanwhile, took five wickets for just eight runs, with Australia then easily chasing down a meagre target of 90 to seal victory.

"We thought if we could get them out for 200 today, have a bit of a bat, we'd stay in the game," Cummins told Channel 7 after the rout on day three.

"But for that to happen in the first hour, amazing."

The pace bowler added: “It was just one of those days where everything came off, everything we tried worked.”

India will hope to rebound quickly in the Second Test, which begins in Melbourne on Boxing Day (December 26).

Additional reporting by PA.

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