India's chance to consolidate on the high of winning the Perth Test by 295 runs was squandered by a ten-wicket defeat in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide. At Adelaide Oval, the Australian bowlers kept their deliveries much fuller than the Indian bowling attack on the first two days of the match, which set the platform for them to win by ten wickets and level the five-match series at 1-1. According to Jatin Paranjape, the former Indian cricketer and national selector, India's failure to bowl fuller deliveries, unlike Australia's approach, cost them the match. 'I thought we didn't bowl as well as we did in Perth. I thought the Australians bowled much better than what the Indian team bowled. I also thought Bumrah was a bit off.”
“I don't think they threw the ball further to the hitters as they should have. So this is the main reason why Australia got a lead of 150 points. The wicket in Adelaide helped the bowlers a lot and if they don't bowl well there, it will be a big miss for India,” Paranjape told IANS in an exclusive chat.
The Indian bowlers also failed to exploit Travis Head's weakness against the short ball, leading to the left-handed batsman making a brilliant 140. Paranjape, the co-founder of KheloMore and a member of the BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee, believes India's bowling strategy against Head in the remaining three matches will be the most critical factor in determining the outcome of the series.
“Travis Head is someone who executes his batting according to his will and his technique is very different, which makes him a very dangerous player. For example, he scored 140 runs in 141 balls on such a challenging pitch. So if he gets off to a good start, India will need to have a foolproof strategy to beat him. Otherwise the series would get away from us very quickly.”
Another key factor in India's loss in Adelaide was their greatly reduced batting time of 81 overs in both innings, significantly less than the 183.7 overs in their win in Perth. Paranjape wants Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul to continue in the rest of the series.
“Certainly, we have to continue for longer. I thought Shubman Gill was destined for a good knock in the second innings before a beauty from Starc got him. Jaiswal, Gill and KL Rahul, who are clearly not youngsters anymore, will have to step up to senior players on this tour by scoring hundreds. The way Jaiswal did it in the first Test match, so we need one of these three to fire away and score a couple of hundreds in the next three Test matches – it's as simple as that.”
Amid all the gloom, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was a bright spot with the bat in the lower order, scoring in three of India's batting innings of 41, 42 and 42. “I was super impressed with the way he played in the two testing. Absolutely, he has the potential to be great.”
“Like he's going to play his game in Australia and against the best bowling attack in the world. So I think the future looks very bright. He can be a real serious alternative to Hardik Pandya in the future,” said Paranjape.
He concluded by saying that the 10-day break between the first and second Tests broke India's momentum. During those ten days, rain reduced India's two-day practice match against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra to a limited-overs match.
“That 10-day break did not help the Indian team. For example, you win one Test match and you would like the second Test match to come quite soon. That ten-day break has made the team a bit calmer in terms of preparation.”
“It was another pink ball Test match, which the team is not used to much. With the next Test match coming up quite quickly on the 14th, we need to regroup – it's as simple as that.”
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