IND vs AUS | Going to be difficult but India will come out fighting in the Boxing Day Test, opines Kris Srikkanth
Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth feels as difficult as it is going to do well in absence of Virat Kohli, he's confident that India will fight back in the second Test. He also added that Australia's batting isn't the strongest and they will miss David Warner, who is 30 percent of their batting.
One of India's biggest flaws in the second innings of the Adelaide Test after being in the ascendancy for a good part of the first two days was intent-less batting. They were diffident in their approach which was left exposed by a rampant Australian pace attack led by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood as they kept hitting the perfect line and lengths invariably to shot down India at 36. As a result, they lost the Test series opener by eight wickets. India are not only trailing 0-1 in the four-match Test series but also missing some of their key players like Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami.
Just after the first Test, there already have been predictions of India's whitewash in Australia, which was the case in New Zealand, earlier this year, when they lost 0-2 to the Kiwis. However, former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth feels India can fight back that too in absence of their regular skipper and best batsman Virat Kohli. He stated that India will need to show positive intent and regroup ahead of the Boxing Day Test, which starts from Saturday.
“The mindset I think was too defensive. They have to regroup. They have to have a bit more positive intent. The best way is just to go for it. But when you miss King Kohli, it’s going to make it difficult, let’s be honest. And Shami [as well],” Srikkanth told The Age and the Herald, reported TOI.
“But I’m sure they’ll come out and fight. Everybody [in India] is disappointed, but then everyone has taken the view [to look at it] as a bad dream,” he added.
One of the major reasons behind India's success in 2018/19 Down Under series win was Australia's poor batting. Indian batsmen kept piling up big scores and the bowlers were able to take 20 wickets cheaply. Addition of Steven Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne was supposed to make Australia's batting strong. But with Warner missing, and both Marnus and Smith failing to score well in the first innings, it took Tim Paine's 73 to bail them out of trouble in the first Test from 5/79 to 191.
Srikkanth still feels Australia's batting is an area that India can exploit. He also added that Warner makes up for 30 per cent of Aussies batting and his absence makes hosts batting relatively weak.
“Let’s not forget, the Aussies’ batting is not great. My belief is the Aussies’ batting is 30 percent Warner, 30 percent Smith, all others put together is 30 percent. But their bowling is very good. The Australian batting is not very strong,” said Srikkanth.
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