Indian cricket team batters need mental adjustments, not technical fixes, to overcome first-innings hoodoo

This is not a great time to be an Indian top-order batter. It’s also a great time to be an Indian top-order batter. For two months and five Tests now, at home and away, the Indian batting has flopped and floundered collectively.

It’s as if the disaster of 46 all out in Bengaluru in the first of three Tests against New Zealand still has them in its unyielding grip. A country ruled by batters and boasting some of the greatest names to have graced the game, the batting has become India’s Achilles’ heel, with a middling total of 200 topped just once in five first innings.

India’s first-innings batting struggles 

The malaise which started at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium spilled over to Pune, then Perth and Adelaide. Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium was a notable exception in that India made 263, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent an embarrassing defeat as 147 in the second innings proved 25 beyond their reach.

Should it be a cause for concern? Most certainly. Should it set off clanging alarm bells within the changing room. One hopes not, for there is too much quality in that private zone for the tide not to turn.

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Bengaluru ought to have been a one-off. For whatever reason, despite the fact that the pitch had sweated under the covers for four days leading into the Test and that a thick sheath of grey greeted the captains at the toss on the scheduled second day, Rohit Sharma opted to bat. Even at the time, it looked a questionable call; hindsight cruelly exposed the lack of wisdom behind that move with Matt Henry and William O’Rourke cutting a swathe through the batting.

Pune was different – an Indian surface, if there’s anything like that. With slow turn, thanks to the black-soil base, it ought to have been straight up the Indians’ alley, but after New Zealand stacked up 259, India’s response was tame, timid, limp – 153. Mitchell Santner, him of white-ball fame. An honest left-arm spinner whose greatest virtue is his accuracy and subtle changes in length and angle, was made to appear unplayable. It was disappointing, indeed dispiriting, to watch. How the mighty had fallen.

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In Perth, there was pace, movement, lift, carry. In the end, 150 proved enough only because Jasprit Bumrah, with help from Mohammed Siraj and debutant Harshit Rana, skittled Australia for 104. In Adelaide, there was early assistance for the quicks but a 2.30 pm start and the prospect of facing a devilish pink ball under lights dictated a bat-first approach but not a tally of 180 in easily the best batting conditions of the opening day. Mumbai excepted, India’s first-innings scores since October 17 read 46, 153, 150 and 180. Hardly encouraging.

As Rohit pointed out before the Adelaide kickoff, the batting conditions in Pune and Mumbai – Bengaluru will remain an aberration best ignored – were tough and demanding, but by choice. By India’s choice. To not to have flourished there would have hurt, but no less will be the sense of letdown in Perth and Adelaide.

India’s cause hasn’t been helped by changes to personnel, and to shift in said personnel up and down the order. Shubman Gill, who dropped down to No. 3 voluntarily from the tour of the Caribbean in July last year, missed the first Tests against New Zealand (stiff neck) and Australia (broken left thumb). Rohit was unavailable for Perth, having availed paternity leave. KL Rahul was dropped after Bengaluru, where Sarfaraz Khan made 150 in the second innings.

Now, Sarfaraz is on the outer while Rahul, who was picked to bat in the middle order in Australia, opened in Rohit’s absence and continued in that position in Adelaide after making 26 and 77, and engaging Yashasvi Jaiswal in a 201-run alliance in the second innings.

Rohit, who has marked his second coming as a Test batter with a terrific record as opener since first donning that role in Visakhapatnam in October 2019 against South Africa, dropped down to No. 6 in the day-night Test to keep the Jaiswal-Rahul tandem intact. It was a selfless move, but also perhaps counter-productive because in 64 previous Test innings, the captain had opened the batting exclusively.

“Since I started opening, from No. 3 onwards till No. 7, I don’t think it is the right position for anyone,” he had quipped in Cape Town in January, minutes after India wrapped up a two-day win against South Africa. To have to slot back into the middle order, after six long years, and that too against a crack Australian attack operating with a pink ball, was asking too much of the skipper, who has had a season to forget as a batter in Test cricket.

India’s top-order conundrum

So, where do India go from here? The Gabba, even though it has been breached twice in the last four years, remains an Australian stronghold and India can expect another test by fire from Mitchell Starc, the fit-again Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. A return to its status as pre-Christmas host – Australia have lost seven out of 61 Tests played in Brisbane before the holiday break – should suit the home side, but India are a far better batting unit than their recent record indicates.

The Indians know it, the Australians know it too. Privately, they are happy Rohit didn’t open in Adelaide because they are wary of the damage he can unload up front, like he did in the T20 World Cup game in Gros Islet in June when he took Starc to the cleaners. Sure, Rohit can’t afford to bat in only that gear because this is Test cricket, but who’s to say how the rest will shape up if the captain can get them off to a cracker.

It’s perhaps stating the obvious, but the key to a meaningful first-innings tally revolves around batting long, having the patience to leave balls early on that warrant no stroke, embracing discipline and invoking immense inner pride. At this point, India’s problems potentially are more mental than technical.

It’s with these same techniques that they have scored runs all over the world, including in Australia where Virat Kohli boasts seven Test hundreds, where Rahul produced his maiden three-figure score in January 2015, where Rishabh Pant is feared and adored, and where Gill announced himself in the 2020-21 series, including with a vital 91 in a record successful chase of 329 at the Gabba in the decider.

Jaiswal has shown what he is capable of with 161 in the Perth second-innings and even though Rohit’s Test record here isn’t flash, he has made multiple hundreds in 50-over internationals. At the top of the order. Will a return to that slot do the trick? Will India be willing to bite the bullet and return to their preferred opening pair of the last 17 months? No matter what the optics might look like?

One thing is certain. After their underwhelming performances in the last two months, there’s only one direction left now – up. That’s neither fanciful nor optimistic thinking. India are not a batting line-up of has-beens. It’s time they married that reality with performances. With pride and passion, and with a point to prove, to themselves. Didn’t we say it’s a great time to be an Indian top-order batter? After all, there is a grand opportunity to do something special. How can that not energise, excite and inspire anyone?