India fight back in Bengaluru

After two forgettable days in Pune, all Indian fans were hoping for that the Indian team would finally show up in Bengaluru. Day 1 certainly didn't go our way with India all out for just 189 after choosing to bat first and Australia 40 for the loss of no wicket. A mammoth effort was required to come back from that position and the Indian team delivered to square the series 1-1 with a 75 run victory.

Here are my thoughts on the test match:

Day 1 action

With the exception of KL Rahul and a fluent 26 from Karun Nair, India's batsmen did not show up. Abhinav Mukund making a comeback was LBW to a ball which Mitchell Starc bowls often early on. He should have been expecting that one. The rough created by Starc helped Australia's main spinner Nathan Lyon who was spot on and bowled an impeccable length to dismiss 8 Indian batsmen. His pitch map looked like this (courtesy ESPN Cricinfo) :

Right from Day 1 there were a few balls that turned a lot and odd ones which stayed low. Therefore, it was clear that 450 was not a par score for the 1st innings though a couple of commentators mentioned it. Even then, India surely looked about 60 runs short.

Indian bowlers respond on Day 2

After having Australia just 159 behind India's total, Indian bowlers came out with a specific plans on Day 2. They wanted to keep it tight and make run scoring hard for Australia and they certainly achieved that. In 90 overs bowled on Day 2, India conceded only 197 runs and picked up 6 wickets. The fast bowlers Ishant and Umesh bowled splendidly in long spells and kept testing the batsmen. Ishant's wicket of Mitch Marsh at the stroke of Tea to put Australia at 163/5 certainly made it a good contest and India were certainly in with a chance.

Australia had 5 lefties in their batting line-up and with the rough patch outside their leg stumps, Ravichandran Ashwin targeted that patch from right arm over. The negative line certainly helped get the wicket of David Warner, but other than that was largely not effective. I think Ashwin needs to bowl right arm around to lefties and ensure LBW comes into play a lot. He didn't look at his attacking best from over the wicket even though he was able to contain the runs.

India's second innings

After having bowled out Australia for 276 thanks for Jadeja's 6 wickets, India came out in the 2nd innings with a lot more intent and managed a quick 30-odd prior to lunch. Rahul continued his good form throughout the series, rotated the strike and played straight for another 50. Pujara looked a little rattled early on with a tough chance being put down, but then carefully gathered his runs. Unlike Rahul or Nair, Pujara is not someone who sweeps the ball often. He did however, pull Nathan Lyon quite effectively off the back foot.

Virat Kohli was a touch unlucky with an LBW appeal as the ball seemed to hit his pads and bat at the same time (in my opinion). DRS wasn't conclusive enough and it was rightly left to umpire's call. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted to #5 to bring a lefty into the mix and try and unsettle the bowlers, which unfortunately did not pay off. Then came vice captain Ajinkya Rahane, who has already been under some scrutiny due to a couple of bad series. Indians clearly had a ploy against the Lyon as Pujara mentioned at the end of Day 2 and Rahane executed exactly that. He batted with an off-stump stance and swept Lyon well with this front pad outside the off-stump - therefore, ruling out the chance of an LBW. Together they put together the best partnership in the series so far and India ended the day about 125 runs ahead.

Day 4

Experts predicted that India needed at least 100-120 more runs to feel comfortable about a win. Considering how well Australia had done in this series, I too felt like we needed a lead of at least 200 runs. India started well, however a quick burst from Mitchell Starc where he got 2 wickets in 2 balls started a mini-collapse. Pujara was dismissed an over later for 92 well fought runs. Saha managed to bat with Ishant for a little bit and managed to set a target of 187.

Considering the pitch, it was never going to be easy and yet I felt India needed to keep it really tight to have a real chance. Ishant bowled a couple of good overs and removed Matt Renshaw. Captain Smith and Warner had a small partnership before Ashwin dismissed his bunny Warner for 9th time in tests. In spite of the in roads made, India were leaking runs fairly quickly and more importantly, Steven Smith looked very comfortable in the middle.

Umesh Yadav was given the ball at this point and bowled a crucial spell. He dismissed Shaun Marsh LBW thanks to a poor umpiring decision, which Australia didn't review due to this comical error. He then picked up the most important wicket of Smith with a straight ball which kept low and the Indian team was extremely pumped. Ravindra Jadeja kept it tight from one end with figures of 8-5-3-1, but it was Ravichandran Ashwin who finally decided to show up in the series. He picked up 6 of the remaining 7 wickets including a beautifully bowled top spinner to get rid of Starc and India won by a comfortable 75 run margin.

DRS and Strategy in the field

In spite of the win, there were a couple of aspects of the game where Australia was much better than India. In the entire test, the only time Australia got a review wrong, it was because it was umpire's call (Warner's LBW on Day 4). Other than that, both while batting as well as fielding they were usually spot on. Majority of India's reviews on the other hand were taken incorrectly and were often wasted. While I know India is still learning to use DRS, the team surely needs a some practice to be more accurate with these calls. I understand that this is expensive technology, but it would be ideal if the BCCI introduces this in domestic tournaments.

The other aspect where Virat Kohli and India's think tank were off was the usage of bowlers along with field placements. In Australia's first innings, Ravindra Jadeja was under bowled by quite a lot. I think it was a combination of three factors - Australians have a lot of lefties, Jadeja going for a little more runs than the other bowlers and the fact that the Pavilion end had resulted in most wickets for spinners. Even though both the pacers bowled well, India could have stopped Australia total to just around 240 instead of 276 had Jadeja bowled more and sooner.

Considering that his record against lefties is outstanding, India surely needs to put more confidence in him for the next two tests. Those extra 35-40 runs did not matter in this test, but could have changed the result on another day. India seemed to have certain plans for each batsmen and they stuck with those even if they did not bear the results. While I have been an advocate of Kohli's aggressive and passionate mindset, he was far from being at his best tactically.

Australians on the other hand, made some very good bowling as well as fielding changes. As an example, on Day 3 Pujara and Rahane were comfortably flicking the ball to square ball during the 2nd session and getting ones and twos. Someone in the Australian camp noticed this and they had a square leg from the first over after Tea and saved at least 8-10 runs in that region. Indian think tank, coaches, Rahane and Ashwin need to be proactive like that to ensure matches don't get away from India's reach in the future.

All in all, in spite of the tactical misses by the Indian camp, our batting and bowling in the 2nd half of the match was much better than Australia's and helped us clinch a good win. After being 1-0 down against an extremely solid Australia side, this was really spirited comeback and great to watch. The team showed throughout that they had not given up and were ready to learn from what the opposition did in the 1st innings. Their ploy against Lyon in 2nd innings clearly worked as he went wicket-less. Out of the 20 wins under Kohli, this is among the top 2 along with Mumbai test against England late last year.

Side note - Young 20-year old Aussie opener Matt Renshaw has been phenomenal in the series so far. He has shown good technique, a lot of patience and ability to concentrate for long periods. People down under compare him to Matthew Hayden since he is from Queensland and tall - but he seems more of a accumulator like Alastair Cook. Australia might have just found a permanent partner for David Warner in this series.