IND vs AUS: India swept aside Australia with an emphatic victory by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur.
Australia were bowled out for 177 and 91 on either side of India piling up 400 in their first and only innings in the Test. That Australia were bowled out for such low totals – compared to India’s – and no Australian batsman scored a half-century tells how dominant India were with the ball.
This also means that whatever worry India have going into the second Test, in Delhi, is regarding their batting.
Here are 3 worries for Team India after 1st IND vs AUS Test:
How much longer rope for KL Rahul?
Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad blasted the selectors and management for picking up KL Rahul regularly in the Indian team, especially despite his ordinary past year across formats, and he even said Rahul gets selected because of “favouritism”.
Prasad and many fans’ qualm is that the in-form Shubman Gill, who had recorded a maiden Test ton in Bangladesh and has been in a dream form in white-ball cricket, was benched in Nagpur as KL Rahul opener and India went with Suryakumar Yadav in the middle-order as the aggressor replacement of Pant, and with Iyer injured.
KL Rahul’s form in Tests has been dodgy for a while: KL Rahul has not scored more than 25 in his last 8 innings! Perhaps any other batsman would have been dropped, is what many feel, but KL Rahul is likely to get another opportunity in the second Test, what could well decide whether he gets dropped or performs well and extends his Test career.
Numbers of Kohli in Test cricket concerning
Amid all the fragilities of the middle-order of Team India in the past 2-3 years in Test cricket, Virat Kohli has held onto his position; of course, he’s earned this faith through a decade of performances. However, Kohli is yet to get back to his best in Test cricket as he did in white-ball cricket last year.
Since the start of 2021, Virat Kohli averages only 27.10 in 18 Tests with 5 fifties; his last Test century came in November 2019.
He scored 12 in Nagpur, but could blame it on a bit of bad luck – strangle down the leg-side and a superb catch from Carey. But bad luck is not something professional cricketers should really hinge on, for they’d know that over a period of time, luck balances itself, and his bad luck in a certain game cancelled out his good luck in some other innings.
Anyway, Kohli’s game against spin has been dodgy for a while: since 2021, Kohli averages only 23 in 10 Test matches in Asia with only 2 fifties! And it’s unlikely to get any easier in the remaining 3 Tests in this series as India look to spin-out Australia to seal a place in the WTC final.
Another chance for Suryakumar Yadav?
If Shreyas Iyer is fit, he will certainly walk back in the XI in Delhi. But if not, India will have a headache whether they replace Suryakumar Yadav with Gill or give SKY another game. On his debut, Suryakumar scored 8 runs before being bowled by Nathan Lyon – a good ball to which SKY played for less turn, but it turned more than he expected.
Even though Suryakumar’s selection in Nagpur came with plenty of debate, now dropping a player after just one Test match would be harsh. But harsh is also to bench Gill, who has been in the form of his life.
