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Aakash Chopra criticized India’s batting in the first innings, highlighting persistent collapses and emphasizing the need for the team to identify and address underlying issues ahead of the third Test against Australia.
New Delhi: Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra felt that the batting aspect in the first innings of the Indian Test team has been problematic and cited that for any improvement in batting, the team will first have to identify the issues of underlying. India’s stalwart batting lineup has met many disappointments over two months and this can clearly be seen in the past five Tests.
Apart from the second innings in Bengaluru and Perth, India’s batting has faced consistent collapses, resulting in four losses in their last five matches.
The whitewash against New Zealand was already a setback, and this defeat in Adelaide has also raised further concerns about India’s batting. It has even jeopardized their chances to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
“India batters have performed only twice, only in the second innings, in the last few Tests. We are not able to bat in the first innings. In challenging conditions, we have suffered collapses one after another. In the last 5 Tests, India have scored runs only two times,” Chopra said while speaking on his YouTube channel.
“The scope for improvement starts when you first start accepting that there is a problem. If you are not understanding the problem, then what are you going to improve? There is a problem with our batting. In the two times we have scored runs, the conditions were good for batting then,” Chopra added.
Failing to score 200 runs across both innings is deeply disappointing, and India captain Rohit Sharma was candid in acknowledging the team’s shortcomings.
“When you come to Australia, I feel the best chance of winning a Test is by putting runs on the board. We knew that there would be challenges with that ball,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.
India will face Australia in the third Test, starting Saturday, December 14, in Brisbane.
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