India's highly anticipated series in Australia begins in less than a week, and the Men in Blue are under pressure as they take on a strong Australian team in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). This series will feature five matches for the first time since the trophy's inception in 1996-97. (More Cricket News)
India are going to play their first Test in Perth after suffering a 0-3 clean sweep against New New Zealand at home. The Kiwi side won their first Test match in India after 12 years when they won the first Test match by eight wickets in Bengaluru. They went on to win their first Test series in India with a 113-run win in Pune and clean-swept the series with another victory in Mumbai.
India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma admitted that they failed to fire collectively and took responsibility for the loss in the home series.
"Losing a series, losing a Test is never easy, it's something that's not easily digestible," Rohit said during the post-match presentation ceremony after the third Test. "Again, we didn't play our best cricket, we know and we have to accept. They (New Zealand) did so much better than us. We made a lot of mistakes and we'll have to accept it."
Accepting mistakes and moving forward is important, but it's not sufficient. India needs to win four out of their next five Test matches in Australia to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. The clean sweep by New Zealand has significantly harmed their chances.
Let's take a look back at the mistakes that the Indian team made against New Zealand and how they can overcome those and not repeat them in Australia
Poor Performance By Senior Players
Indian captain made only 91 runs combined in his six innings during three Test matches against New Zealand at home with only one 50-plus score. India's batting mainstay Virat Kohli managed to score in double digits only twice (70 in 1st Test and 17 in 2nd Test).
KL Rahul was dropped from the playing XI after the first Test in which he made 0 & 12. Shubman Gill replaced him in the next two matches and he played only one convincing knock of 90 runs in the third Test match.
The senior players in the Indian cricket team need to demonstrate responsibility and utilize their experience when facing Australian bowlers in Australia. They must adapt their play to meet the needs of the team and perform effectively. Those who are struggling with their form should be benched.
India Against Spin
The Indian team is usually considered a good team against spin, but the stats say differently. The Rohit Sharma-led side gave 35 out of 40 wickets in the last two matches to the Kiwi spinners (19 in the 2nd and 16 in the 3rd Test).
Indian batters also struggled against Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir when England came for a home series earlier this year. Axar Patel, who did well in that series, failed to get any match in the series against Black Caps.
Forget spin, we struggled against pace in the first Test as well where the Kiwi triplet of Matt Henry, William O'Rourke and Tim Southee bamboozled the Indian batting order and bowled them out for their lowest score on home soil (46 all out in 1st innings).
Lack Of Responsibility
The current Indian team lacks responsible figures. Kohli, Sharma and Rahul have failed to portray that role for the young brigade. Sarfaraz Khan, who made a place for himself in the senior team on the back of some brilliant knocks against England, only managed to score one big score in the New Zealand series. They also failed to read the match situation and play accordingly.
Players were unable to play responsibly and got out while attempting rash shots. However, for the team to succeed during the Australia tour, every player must contribute fairly. Head coach Gautam Gambhir needs to assign specific roles and responsibilities to each player to ensure this.
Rohit Sharma, who recently became the father of a baby boy, may take paternity leave and the vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah can lead the team in his absence in the Perth Test which starts on Friday, 22 November. His responsibility as a leader will increase when he will have to manage his workload as well.
Need To Pick Players Who Are Doing Well
Only Rishabh Pant looked confident against New Zealand and played some fabulous knocks. He has good batting statistics in the traditional format and his best like Virat Kohli, have come against Australia.
But, Dhruv Jurel, another wicketkeeper-batter, has done well in the unofficial Test matches in Australia and is looking good to bat in the middle-order considering the various injury scares. Abhimanyu Easwaran is another batter, who has done well for Bengal in domestic cricket for a long time and is being considered as the front-runner to open the innings in Perth.
The speedsters Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep are part of the Indian squad and will play because it is a very long series and pacers will have to be managed carefully. Hit-the-deck bowlers will come in handy in Australia.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is an all-rounder, may get a nod for his Test debut in Perth because of his multi-purpose abilities. But, we also have Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin who have done nothing wrong. So, picking the playing XI will be a difficult task for the team management.
Lost Intent
Many cricket experts felt that the Indian batters lacked intent during our recent Test series loss against New Zealand. They noted that the hunger for runs, which is a hallmark of players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, was noticeably absent.
Indian players need to mend these issues before the highly anticipated Test series starts on Friday. When India breached the Gabba fortress under Ajinkya Rahane, the hunger for victory was clearly visible. That was a young side in comparison to what this squad is.
Australians are not going to take it easy when the series begins in Perth. The Indian team should prepare for a lot of bouncers and potential injuries. If they do not adjust their mindset and focus on positive cricket, India might lose the BGT winning streak this time.
