As the Ind vs. Aus series continues, only a select few Indian players have been able to contribute significantly with the bat. In theory, playing at home should help Indian batters, but that hasn’t happened yet. While the pitchers have made things more difficult, a few of the batters have shown promise without producing significant runs.
Recently, Gautam Gambhir, an ex-Indian player who is now a commentator, commented on India’s batting performance in the Ind vs. Aus series. Gautam Gambhir admitted that the team may have benefited from playing more Ranji games before the commencement of the test series. The Indian squad has played only two test matches in Bangladesh in the past six months. Players in the Ind vs. Aus series have struggled to live up to the standards of the longest format due to the prevalence of the shorter format.
According to Gautam Gambhir, the side may have benefited greatly from playing more red-ball cricket before a vital series. He thinks Australia’s struggles in the first two Tests were due in part to their decision to forego playing any exhibition games during the tour. In the lead-up to the Ind vs. Aus series, the visitors turned down the offer of playing practice games on the grounds that the pitch would be different than the ones used in the actual games.
“The Indian batters should have played a few Ranji Trophy matches ahead of the Test series against Australia. However, they shouldn’t have played those matches just to prepare. It doesn’t matter if you conduct 20-day camps or bat in the nets. Australia struggled in the first two matches because of their mindset of not playing practice matches. This is a negative mindset. The same goes for the Indian batters. It is very important to play red-ball cricket before an important series,” Gautam Gambhir added.
So far in the Ind vs. Aus series, only the Indian captain, Rohit Sharma, has scored a century. The Border-Gavaskar trophy has been kept by the Indian team after they won the first two matches. Australia, led by Steve Smith, won the third game of the series by 9 wickets. The series finale is set to take place in Ahmedabad on March 9. While Australia would not want to mess with a winning formula, we could see some lineup changes for Team India.
