2nd Test: Middle-order woes return to haunt India on Day 1 | Cricket News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Once upon a time, India had a ‘Fab Four.’ In Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, India had a middle-order to die for. With Virender Sehwag at the top, the mix looked deadlier.
India’s middle-order ‘giants’ who looked set to replace the legends four years ago, now look like pygmies. Ahead of their impending tour of South Africa (when and if it happens), it is indeed a big worry for India that the entire backbone of their middle-order – Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli – seems as brittle as Belgian glass at the moment. With India’s ‘middle’ looking in such ‘muddle,’ it is anybody’s guess what havoc will ace fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje will cause on the bouncy pitches there.

While there’s no doubting their class, the trio has been short of runs and confidence, and ironically, the responsibility of sorting out their issues – technical and perhaps mental too -or even take a call on their future, has fallen on Dravid, a prominent member of the ‘Fab Four,’ who’s now the India head coach. All three are 33 – which practically means that if Pujara and Rahane are dropped, there might be no coming back for them there. While Shreyas Iyer has already broken the door- showing the world what he can do in Test cricket in his first opportunity – waiting in the wings is a Suryakumar Yadav, who has shown plenty of flair in white-ball cricket. Sooner or later, more options will emerge.
On Friday, Ajinkya Rahane finally paid the price for his prolonged poor form, as he failed to find a spot in the India XI which took the park in the second Test against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium. The official reason given by the BCCI was that the man who led India in the first Test at Kanpur, had injured his hamstring while fielding on the final day of that game, and that he had not recovered completely. However, on match eve, the 33-year-old batted at the MCA’s indoor nets facility at BKC, where Team India trained due to rain.
While Rahane’s struggles are well-documented now, his colleagues in the middle-order, Cheteshwar Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli, aren’t doing great either. Both were out for ducks on Friday, albeit in contrasting fashion.
Pujara hasn’t got a hundred in 39 innings now, and his dismissal only reflected his woes. While dancing down the wicket and stroking the spinners through mid-wicket is his strength, it wasn’t a wise choice considering that Ajaz Patel was turning the ball square from the middle stump, and the batsman himself is short of form and confidence.
Kohli can count himself a bit unlucky considering that his dismissal was shrouded in controversy, but the fact remains that more than breaks from the bio-bubble, the superstar of Indian cricket, who ruled everything as long as his bat was ‘talking,’ needs runs under his belt.