Indian cricket team won the second test at Bangalore and squared the four match test series against Australia 1-1.Indian team has to improve in many areas before the third test to be played at Ranchi from March 16.India had lost the first match against Australia at Pune.
Indian opening needs tuning
Indian test team is facing a problem of not having a steady opening partnership and to add to the woes, K.L Rahul and Mural Vijay, the regular openers are injured. BCCI, the Cricket official board for India has announced no changes for the third test and Mukund is the only fit regular opener now.
K.L Rahul is playing seamlessly and he is less troubled by the pitch conditions and Australian bowlers. He has lost the wicket to his attacking mindset and once that is kerbed, he can produce that big score which is eluding him for some time. Mukund has not set the ouse on fire coming in as replacement to Murali Vijay and India needs a good partnership from their openers to set the tone in the third test.
Indian slip catching needs more improvement
Indian slip fielders are dropping catches and that can cost the match. The placement of slip fielders is also baffling at some time. For example in the second innings of the second test match played at Bangalore, Kohli stood at a position that can be termed as middle of first and second slip and he was unable to take a sitter offered by Steve Smith.
Lucky for him and India, that did not cost the team the match but Smith did make India pay in the first test match at Pune when he was dropped by close in fielders in the second innings and helped Australia to capitulate India. Indians need to concentrate more and should approach the catching with soft hands so that the ball does not pop out.
Indian middle order needs firing together
Pujara got runs back in the second innings at the second test against Australia at Bangalore when he compiled a well-made 92 runs. He was dropped by Australians when he was at 3 and 4 and that was a costly miss from the Australian point of view. Pujara is a steady accumulator of runs and he can graft runs and keep scoring runs.
Pujara needs to make sure that he keeps steadfast in his commitment to score runs. Kohli is not at the prime of his form against Australians and he has fallen cheaply in all his four innings against Australian in this test series.
Kohli gets going means that he would inflict a big psychological scar on the minds of Aussies bowlers and that would help Indian team cause. Rahane is always under pressure like VVS Laxman. Rahane needs to prove always to silence the critics just like Laxman was forced to do. To Rahane’s credit, he has a supporting captain in form of Kohli and a supporting coach in form of Kumble.
He needs to justify his talent and the belief the team management has in him and he can score big against Australia and take from where he has stopped against Australia in the second innings at second test match.
Karun Nair did impress his batting in the first innings in the second test match but faltered in the second test match against Australia. Karun Nair needs to calm himself and take Indian team cause forward by batting for long periods and waiting for settling down before trying out extravagant shots right at the start of the innings.
Indian Cricket Team should take the momentum forward and stamp their authority in the test series against Australia at Ranchi. They need to improve in areas where they are coming short in the series played so far.