India's Test middle-order batting, in recent times, has hinged
on a counter-attacking style by Pant, Iyer and Jadeja. With Pant and
Iyer missing, it's up to Pujara, Kohli and Rahane to up the tempo and
set the tone...
India's Test middle-order is standing on a precipice. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane
are in their mid-30s and batting to prove they have enough muscle to
carry India's batting through the sternest of challenges. And the World
Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval in London will be
the prime indicator of their readiness.
In 18 months, Pujara and
Rahane have been on a journey from being dropped as India's batting
mainstays to clawing their way back through domestic grind even as Kohli
was trying to prove he could still have a definitive impact on Test
matches.
All this while, Team India head coach Rahul Dravid went about establishing Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer as the pillars of the middle order for the future.
Dravid
hoped to build on the pool that he had nurtured during his time as the
head of India's developmental sides before taking up the assignment with
the senior team in November 2021. One couldn't really fault him. For,
Pant rose meteorically to become an irresistible force in the middle
order starting with the tour of Australia in 2020-21. Iyer too started
coming along nicely by playing crucial knocks in crunch situations.
Ravindra Jadeja,
a bit surprisingly, also emerged as a dependable Test batter. These
three, with the help of the lower order, got used to salvaging a lot of
Indian innings.
It's interesting that the team management under Kohli
was resistant towards Pant becoming a regular member of the first XI
before the historical turnaround in Australia. Pujara, Kohli and Rahane
were the first picks, eyes closed. In two and a half years, Rahane has
managed to sneak back into the team with the current team management
hoping he could fill Pant's shoes at No. 5.
1/13
India road to WTC Final against Australia
In essence, India's most experienced trio is left to make up for the
absence of Pant and Iyer. It is also a reflection on the selectors'
inability to find a second line after Pant and Iyer and compulsion to
fall back on the old warhorses.
One must look beyond the mere numbers
that Pant, Iyer and Jadeja have put up. Pant's ultra-aggressive
counterattacking approach, ably complemented by Iyer and Jadeja, was
kind of a prelude to England's new-found all-out brand of Test cricket.
Test cricket has moved on from its basic grinding-it-out nature of
batting. Often described as reckless, this brand of cricket has become
the Plan A to succeed in the longest format for some of the top teams.
Pant
and Jadeja's counter-attacking centuries during the only Test against
England at Edgbaston last year highlights the trend. For the record,
Pujara, Kohli and Rahane have been striking at 37.53, 44.22 and 46.1
since that Australian tour of 2020-21 that saw Pant's ascension as a
prolific Test batter.
Pujara and Rahane have, however, now testified
in favour of the enterprising. On the eve of his 100th Test in Delhi in
February, Pujara conceded that he went back to County cricket to add
more shots to his armoury following the advice of Dravid after being
dropped in 2022.
1/13
Australia road to WTC Final against India
"Playing
white-ball cricket for Saurashtra and Sussex really helped. It made me a
little more open-minded and flexible," Pujara had said.
Rahane's
comeback story too has been built on this approach. He played domestic
cricket with an inherent aggressive approach which culminated in a
dominating IPL season. At the fag end of the Ranji Trophy season, Rahane
had asserted that he has been watching old videos of his batting to get
back into that frame of mind.
1/11
The turnaround in Ajinkya Rahane's career
"I
want to bat with the same mindset and show the same intent that I
showed in IPL and Ranji Trophy. I would not like to think about the
format. The way I am batting now, I don't want to complicate things and
the more I keep it simple, better it is," Rahane stated to BCCI.tv.
Most
discussions on India's batting line-up for the WTC final has revolved
around how India could fill Pant's void. Experts have hinted at the need
to find an option that could bat as close to Pant's style as possible.
Hence, the clamour for Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav's inclusion. But the team management would know that it will have to eventually come down to Pujara, Kohli, Rahane along with Jadeja to make sure India don't feel Pant's absence much.
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