IND vs AUS: Indian cricketers get a well-deserved break after Delhi Test win
India’s Test team will get five days off before the start of the third Test in Indore on March 1. India won the second Test by six wickets in three days at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. The players have been asked to report to Indore on February 25. Most of the players headed to their respective homes, while middle-order batsman Suryakumar Yadav travelled to Tirupati to visit the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple for darshan.
Top Indian players have a hectic schedule coming up. The last two Test matches of the Australia series will be played in Indore (March 1-5) and in Ahmedabad (March 9-13). This will be followed by three One-day Internationals in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Chennai. Nine days later, the Indian Premier League begins.
Though the Indian team has retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, they will need to ensure they qualify for the final of the World Test Championships. So both the games —in Indore and Ahmedabad — will be crucial.
India retained the same squad which played the first two Test matches against Australia. However, out-of-form opener KL Rahul was removed as vice-captain and no deputy for Rohit Sharma was named. Rohit has been given a free hand to pick his vice-captain for the last two Test matches.
The Indian cricket team on Sunday visited the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, a one-of-a-kind museum dedicated to the Prime Ministers of India.
India had won the first Test in Nagpur by innings and 132 runs.
Summing up India’s batting performance in both the Tests, captain Rohit Sharma spoke about the approach which works.
“You need technique to defend as well as attack, including the shots down the ground, sweep and reverse sweep. All the boys playing for India have grown up playing all these shots and defend at the same time. On pitches like these, it is very important to have confidence in your own technique. The preparation for that becomes crucial. Ahead of the Nagpur Test, we had 6-7 days and we utilized them really well. We worked on what shots to play and how to play them. We were playing in Nagpur on red soil and here we were batting on black soil. Here the sweep was not a very good option, stepping out to the spinners was probably the safer option. That is my view. All batters think differently about their batting and you just need to have confidence in the way you play.”
