Indian fans suffered another heartbreak after India lost the WTC final on Wednesday. Their search for an ICC trophy continues. But the final also raised some issues that India will have to address before the England series. Due to the following reasons India was not able to cross the line. Hence, Virat Kohli and his men need to address these areas quickly.
1. Batsmen converting their starts into big scores.
Almost all Indian front line batsmen got starts. But none of them were able to convert their starts into big scores. No Indian batsmen was able to score even a single fifty in the whole test match. The highest individual score was of Rahane(49). Other batsmen who got starts were Rohit Sharma in both innings, Shubhman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant in the second innings.
It is also important for Indian batters to stitch long partnerships. That’s how you can put up big totals on the board. This will severely hurt India if this continues in the England series as well. Bowlers have always delivered overseas. It has been the batting that has disappointed.
2. Bowling to the tailenders.
Wrapping up the tail is not a new worry for India. It’s like an old tradition which is still being continued till date. Team India has lost several matches on the back of this inability. This WTC final is just another example in a long list of misfortunes.
India’s problems in cleaning up the tail have been surfacing quite frequently in recent years. The main reason behind losing the tour of England in 2018 was the inability of Indian bowlers to dismiss the tailenders. Indian bowlers have been able to remove the top order batsman consistently for not many runs. But the quantity of runs added by the tail haunts them at the end.
3. Indian tailenders batting in England.
Indian tail has always struggled in England. Even in the WTC final they were not able to put a prize on their wicket. We should not expect them to perform like batsmen but the least they can do is not to throw away their wickets like they did in the final. In the first innings, India’s last four wickets added only 35 runs. The second innings was even worse where they got only 28 runs.
Indian tail lie in the bottom half of the highest-scoring tailenders when one considers their batting-average in the last 5 years. Their average of 12.41 is only better than Sri Lanka (9.15) and Bangladesh (7.88) and lags far behind Pakistan (15.23) and even West Indies (14.38) when considering the major Test-playing countries.
4. Showing some intent in scoring runs.
Conditions in the UK will be tough for batting. But Indian batsmen cannot let bowlers settle and bowl on consistent lines and lengths. Indian captain Virat Kohli also pointed this out in the press conference after the match. He said to try and score runs and not worry about getting out in testing conditions. That’s the way you can put opposition under pressure, otherwise you are standing there hoping that you don’t get out and you are not being optimistic enough.
Indian batsmen need to be more brave in putting bowlers under pressure. They should not allow them to bowl in similar areas for longer periods of time unless it is absolutely overcast and ball swinging all over the place.
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