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.
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India road to WTC Final against Australia
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<p>The five-match India-England series was split with the first four matches played in August 2021 and the series decider – the fifth Test – a year later in July 2022. </p>
<p>Indians were leading 2-1 when the series had to be stopped in 2021 due to COVID19. India lost the Edgbaston Test in July 2022 as England levelled the series. India got 24 points from the series.</p>
<p>New Zealand managed to survive defeat in the first Test in Kanpur as India could not take one wicket to seal the match. </p>
<p>But India beat New Zealand in the second Test by 372 runs. Ajaz Patel’s 10 wickets in the India first innings was the highlight. India got 16 points from the series. </p>
<p>India won the first Test in Centurion but lost the next two and got 11 points from the series.<br /></p>
<p>In March 2022, India won the first Test against Sri Lanka at Mohali by an innings and 222 runs. Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 175 and 9 wickets in the match fashioned India’s victory. </p>
<p>India won the day/night 2nd Test at Bengaluru by 238 runs and earned 24 points from the series. </p>
<p>Playing on Bangladesh turf, India won the first Test at Chattogram comfortably by 188 runs with Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel leading the wickets tally. </p>
<p>In the 2nd Test at Mirpur, India needed a 71-run unbroken 8th wicket stand between Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin to seal victory and win 24 points from the series. </p>
<p>Sri Lanka needed to beat in New Zealand 2-0 in the two-match series to clinch a spot in the final, ahead of India. </p>
<p>India drew the 4th Test against Australia while Sri Lanka could not beat the Kiwis at home, giving India a place in the WTC 2023 final. </p>
<p>That set up the clash between India and Australia and India got 24 points from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. </p>
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.
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Australia road to WTC Final against India
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<p>The 4-0 Ashes win during December-January 2021-22 gave Australia a head start for the 2021-23 WTC cycle. The Aussies stamped their dominance in the series with a resounding victory on their home soil. </p>
<p>England survived the fourth Test in Sydney by the skin of their teeth managing to avoid a whitewash as Australia got 52 points from the series. </p>
<p>The spin and pace combination of Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins helped Australia beat Pakistan on their home turf 1-0 in March 2022. </p>
<p>The first two Tests were drawn and in the deciding Test, Pakistan lost 5 wickets in the final session giving Australia their first series win in Pakistan after 1998. Australia got 20 points from the series. </p>
<p>Australia shared the honours when they visited Sri Lanka for a two-Test series during June-July 2022. Australia managed a 10-wicket victory in the first Test with Nathan Lyon picking up 9 wickets for the Test. </p>
<p>Dinesh Chandimal’s unbeaten double century took the Lankans ahead as Prabath Jayasuriya’s 12 wickets on his debut made the innings victory possible. Australia got 12 points from the series.</p>
<p>For their home series against the West Indies, Australia did not have to break into much of a sweat for their 2-0 win for the Frank Worrell trophy. </p>
<p>It has now been 25 years since West Indies have won a series in Australia as the Aussies got 24 points from the series. </p>
<p>Australia almost confirmed their place in the WTC final after beating South Africa 2-0 on their home turf, with the third ending in a draw.</p>
<p>With this loss, SA’s chances for the WTC final were effectively diminished. Australia got 28 points from the series. </p>
<p>When Australia toured India in February-March 2023, they were beaten hands down in the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, the first by an innings.<br /></p>
<p>The Aussies fought back in the third Test beating India by 9 wickets in a low scoring game. That set up the final Test at Ahmedabad which ended in a draw as Australia got 16 points from the series. </p>
“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.
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The turnaround in Ajinkya Rahane’s career
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<p>Ajinkya Rahane’s resurgence for CSK, coupled with his promising domestic form, earned him a berth in the WTC final squad against Australia at the Oval. </p>
<p>Rahane finished with 326 runs from 14 matches at an astounding strike rate of 172.48 and was CSK’s fourth-highest run-getter. </p>
<p>Rahane’s experience of English conditions will be beneficial to the Rohit Sharma-led Indian side. </p>
<p>Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting was happy to see Ajinkya Rahane make a comeback to Test squad.</p>
<p>Ponting also felt that his positive intent in the IPL, did help Rahane’s cause. </p>
<p>Ponting feels that Test cricket is easier for Rahane compared to his recent exploits in IPL for CSK. </p>
<p>Rahane last featured in Tests for India in January 2022 and has since been out of favour in the red-ball setup. </p>
<p>Before being dropped, Rahane had a horrendous 2021 where he scored just 479 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 20.82. </p>
<p>Rahane’s last Test century came at the MCG in the Border-Gavaskar series of 2020/21 where he captained India’s comeback after the dismal 36 all out. </p>
<p>Rahane must make full use of the opportunity that has come his way to extend his professional career. </p>
“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.
