VVS Laxman, on Tuesday (November 30), said that the India head coach, Rahul Dravid, and batting coach, Vikram Rathour, will have to work on India’s top-order batters after they failed miserably in the first Test against New Zealand at Green Park, Kanpur.
He has pointed out the Indian cricket team’s top-order as the key area that Dravid and Rathour need to address before the second and final Test against New Zealand, starting on December 3 in Mumbai.
The legendary Indian batter was really disappointed with the effort of India’s top-order batting line-up comprising Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ajinkya Rahane in the first Test against New Zealand, as they averaged only 21.25 in Kanpur.
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This is the second time this year that the Indian top order has averaged this low at home since 2010, after they averaged 16.50 in a Test match against England in Ahmedabad, and Laxman feels that there were a lot of mistakes and technical flaws that needed to be addressed by the coaches.
From the top-order, only Shubman Gill managed to score a fifty, but he fell for 1 in the second innings against New Zealand in the recently concluded first Test that ended in a draw in Kanpur on Monday.
Laxman told Star Sports: “One thing I am disappointed with this Indian Test team after this match is their batting, especially their top order, and it needs to be addressed before the next Test. It's not about getting out but how they got out.”
He also pinpointed the way the Test specialist Pujara, who scored 26 and 22 runs, got out in both the innings against New Zealand at Green Park, Kanpur.
The commentator added, “Pujara in the second innings if you see the dismissal, it's almost a repeat of the same mistakes. And India is playing this Test match after a long break, so it is expected from professionals to rectify their mistakes and introspect on what went wrong and continue to do what was working for you. Unfortunately, a lot of those mistakes were because of technical flaws. And that's something I'm sure that Rahul and Vikram Rathour will look very closely.”
Laxman also believes that India should have declared a few overs earlier as he felt it would have made the difference in the outcome of the opening Test against New Zealand.
He signed off by saying, “Yes you wanted to get to a score which was above 274. But we all know that the last few overs are very very tough for any batsman however established he is. So I definitely feel that that probably should have bowled five overs more. That would have been the difference. But having said that, today, the bowlers did stick to their task.”
