Inside out | Pujara not lone culprit as Indian batting in Sydney ratify Kohli’s call for intent

One of the familiar-faced pundits on the Indian television and sports media, former Indian player Ajay Jadeja keeps reiterating a point about how challenging the task of being successful at the international stage is. Jadeja argues that, if a batsman seeks to dominate at the top, he is always kept under added tactical scrutiny of the opposition and hence constant evolution is the only way to remain successful for a long period of time.

To add to Jadeja's remarks, commentator Harsha Bhogle states that your action on the field does not necessarily follow your success from the past, rather the might you show and what you do on the field while playing, establish how great you are as a player.

But why are these two narratives relevant today?

These are relevant today as India have allowed the ongoing Test at the SCG to slip away from their grasp due to their inept attitude and timid approach with the bat in hand. Two of India's most experienced batsmen have played right into Australia’s hands by failing to evolve their game according to the situation and challenges thrown by the home side.

Pujara batted valiantly for his 50 runs from 176 balls, and two batsmen around him—Hanuma Vihari and Ajinkya Rahane took 38 balls for 4 runs, and 70 balls for 22 runs respectively.

Both Rahane and Pujara failed to read the game and dug a big hole for themselves and the team. A hole, that their captain Virat Kohli has termed ‘playing without intent’ over the years.

Pujara's tactics from the third day of the Sydney Test was highly successful on the last tour of Australia as he was successful in wearing down the Australian bowlers. Pujara scored three centuries and one 70 in the last Test series and each of his successful innings took a lot of balls. In the first Test at Adelaide in 2018, he played 246 balls in the first innings to score 123 runs, while the score of 71 in the second innings took as many as 204 balls.  He went a step further and consumed 319 balls to score 106 runs in the Melbourne Test, but he came back to strike rate in excess of 50 runs per 100 balls in his near double ton at the same SCG two years back.

The ploy of occupying the crease worked well for both him and the team in the last series as the Australian bowlers kept coming at him trying to induce edge off him outside the off stump. It worked well as Australian bowlers started losing steam after Pujara won the game of patience, but the story seems to be coming out differently from the first Test in the series.

Australian bowlers have shown signs of coming at Pujara with a revamped strategy of attacking the line much closer to his off stump, and have packed the leg-side field along to deny him easy singles to the mid wicket region. Pujara has been thinking (possibly) that he could outsmart them again with his patience but that is not quite the case this time around. Pujara has been guilty of playing such straight and dead bats that even half volleys on the leg stump have not been attempted to score on. He has allowed the likes of Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and also Lyon to keep attacking him at a particular line and length.

Apart from the maturity and the development of the Australian pacers, another factor proving detrimental for Pujara is the absence of Virat Kohli after him in the batting order. The sheer presence of Virat Kohli and other batsmen such as Rahane and Mayank Agarwal who batted with relatively more freedom provided the team with a breathing space at the other end as Pujara kept on batting like a monk throughout the series. Hence, the running out of steam and pure lack of momentum by the Indian batting unit on the third day of the Test can’t be burdened on Pujara’s shoulders alone as both Rahane and Vihari had a massive role to play in keeping the scoreboard ticking while Pujara was biding his time and trying to grind the Australians down. 

Pujara however should get a fair share of the blame for being found out against a high-quality attack that will test not only technique but also the mental capacity of any batsman.  

In his case, they have certainly opened a chink in the armour, as they have understood the right hander's patience game against both short and full balls. Now, they have started targeting him with deliveries pitched at short of good lengths and on the line closer to the off stump as Pujara has been repetitively caught in no man’s land to edge behind the keeper. Cummins has dismissed Pujara four times in the series and has looked threatening with his rising deliveries as Pujara has been guilty of not using his back foot, and playing the ball in awkward positions. But to his credit, had it not been for his fifty, India would have been in for a massive leather hunt on the third day and fourth day against the likes of Smith and Labuschagne.

The sluggishness in the batting started when Shubman Gill departed after hitting his maiden fifty in Test cricket. Unfortunately for India, the slide started from thereon as both Rahane and Pujara clearly started to look beyond the next ball they were to face and focus more on surviving the day than putting the hosts on the backfoot.

At the end of the second day, Rahane 4 was unbeaten at 4 from 40 balls while Pujara was holding his guards strong at 9 from 53 deliveries and India were 96/2 from 45 overs, out of which 12 overs were played by the duo of Rahane and Pujara that yielded a mere 10 runs. It establishes the shell both the batsmen went in while looking to play it safe for the stumps on the second day. 

On the third day morning, the story was exactly similar as both Rahane and Pujara could take out only 6 runs off the first six overs of the day before Rahane showing signs of cutting loose as he drove Starc imperiously between cover and mid-off and followed up with stepping out to hit Lyon for a six. The response established that India’s skipper understood that the game hadn't gone away from the Australians, instead, a couple of wickets would give the hosts a real sniff to get back in the game. On the other hand, Pujara was batting the way he has done throughout his career at 16 runs off 100 balls, but if India end up losing this Test, it should lead Pujara to do a bit of soul searching on how can he not develop a game around his backfoot even after playing so many years at the international level and touring countries at more than one occasions. 

On the other hand, nothing can be taken away from the Australian bowlers who have been supreme in the series, and they made sure the duo did not get anything loose to get off the ground and in order to chip away at the lead. Cummins provided Australia with a much-needed breakthrough in the very next over after Rahane hit the six and what Rahane and Indian fans would’ve feared as Australians were in the game big time.

Hanuma Vihari was asphyxiated by the combination of Lyon and Hazlewood, and while Pujara enjoyed some boundaries against the off-spinner, the misery was not over for Vihari. Ultimately, the pressure turned out to be too much to handle and Vihari looked in a desperate search for runs and got run out by a piece of brilliance by Hazlewood.

Since the dismissal of Gill in the 33rd over when the score was 85, to the fall of Vihari in the 68th over, India could manage to score only 57 runs in a span of 35 overs with a run rate lower than two runs per over and the wicket of Rahane and Vihari along with only exacerbated India’s problems in the middle.

The lower-order batsmen in Pant and Jadeja could not rise to the occasion big time as both of them were struck by the menace of the hosts’ pacers, and at the end of the third day’s play, the India team is showing signs of their wheels coming off.

Australia are leading by 200 runs, and unless a magical spell of bowling comes from someone, they are all set to chase a score more than 400 runs on the fourth and the fifth day of the Test, and there India will need Pujara, Rahane, and Vihari to come good with all the same that worked against them on the third day of the Test. 

Yes, talk about changing your tactics and evolving as a player every day according to the situation of a particular game.

Powered by Froala Editor