When the Indian cricket team toured England in 1974, with the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Ajit Wadekar, they recorded their lowest Test score of 42 at the iconic Lord’s. That score, in Indian cricket parlance, is known as “Summer of 42”. And years after, when Virat Kohli-led team looked to dominate the hosts in their own background, they were put on the mat as they registered their lowest-ever Test total of 36 runs.

Gavaskar and the late Ajit Wadekar had long carried the baggage of that English Summer, inarguably one of the worst in the annals of Indian cricket. It will now be replaced by the “Summer of 36”.

Call it fate, but just like Gavaskar then, a modern day great like Kohli will have this bit of avoidable history in his legacy, a day when one could hardly figure out what went wrong.

In what could be dubbed as an embarrassing batting outing, India collapsed to 36/9 in the terminated second innings, leaving Australia with just a 90-run target on the third day of the first Day/Night Test at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Chasing the easy goal, Australia reached 15 for no loss at dinner break and are expected to complete formalities into the second session.

To make matters worse for India, star pacer Mohammed Shami’s series could well be overdue to a wrist injury from a short ball from Pat Cummins, which could potentially be a fracture. 

The Indian batting was completely exposed by the extra bounce generated by Australian pacers, who bowled every delivery on the off-middle channel after landing on the seam.

In an inexplicable collapse, India’s much-vaunted batsmen fell like nine pins with not a single one able to reach double figures.