IND vs AUS: Focus on batting against spin as India eye WTC final spot in Ahmedabad Test
India’s batting will be in focus as the Rohit Sharma-led side will look to win the Ahmedabad Test and reach their second successive World Test Championship final when they take on Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
For the hosts, the equation remains straightforward. Win the series 3-1 and do not rely on the outcome of Sri Lanka’s away rubber in New Zealand to qualify for the summit WTC clash in June. After both sides’ spinners held their ground on designer tracks that bordered on being under-prepared, the firm and even the bounce on offer at Motera should provide some welcome relief to the batters.
INDIA’S BATTING WOES
The likes of Virat Kohli (111), and Cheteshwar Pujara (98), would like to spend enough time in the 22-yard zone to make the long walk back seem less strenuous. The fact that Axar Patel (185) is India’s second highest scorer in the series after skipper Rohit (207) puts the level of difficulty that batters have faced so far into perspective.
Big knocks against quality opposition have eluded Kohli and Pujara for far too long, and they know it better than anyone else. While the clamour for KL Rahul’s head has buried any discussions about Kohli’s Test average of 25 or higher in the last three and a half years, the master batter knows that public memory is fickle and it won’t take long for critics to train their guns on him if the duration of failure is extended further.
Skipper Rohit Sharma played down pitch talks and said the team with better skills would prevail. “How challenging the pitches are, how much is it turning, how much is it seaming…we are trying to keep all of that away,” Rohit told reporters.
“Conditions are there for us to play and you got to find your ways to score your runs on whatever pitches you play on.” Spinners have ruled the roost in the series, especially in the third test in Indore where India suffered two collapses en route to a nine-wicket loss.
“Not putting enough runs on the board in the first innings is probably what cost us the game,” Rohit said. “It tells you that toss is not a factor at all in this series.
“You got bring out your best skills and play your best cricket to win the game.”
STEVE SMITH EYES 2-2
On the other hand, Steve Smith will lead Australia again in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins, who flew home after the second match in Delhi to be with his ailing mother in Sydney. India retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy with back-to-back wins in Nagpur and Delhi but Smith says drawing the series would be no mean feat for his side.
“It’d be a huge achievement for the group, or any touring team that comes here to India and wins two Test matches,” Smith said.
The key question for the Australian team will be whether they will drop one off-spinner in Todd Murphy and bring in an extra pacer (Scott Boland or Lance Morris). With the WTC final berth already secured, Steve Smith in his stopgap role would undoubtedly hope to break India’s legendary record of being unbeatable at home. It hadn’t happened since England arrived in 2012, but given the Indore boomerang, it can’t be ruled out.
Teams (from):
Australia: Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (captain), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson.
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.