India’s being against DRS baffles me

The Sydney Test gives the Indians a chance to do well and probably stage a comeback in the series. The pace and bounce added with some quality fast bowling unsettled the Indian batsmen in Melbourne, but in Sydney the assistance to the seamers is likely to reduce as the match progresses, much to the Indian batsmen’s liking. Apart from an easier track, what might work in the visitors’ favour is the inconsistency of the hosts. The Australians haven’t really made use of the early advantage in the recent past and we have seen this team often conceding the advantage.

Though the track will be better suited to the Indians, they still have an uphill task in their hands. They were never a side who did well away from home, and now they have lost five consecutive away Tests, so they will have to play out of their skins to stage a comeback from here. I have been really impressed with what I saw of the Indian bowlers but however their old problem of cleaning the tail still stays on. Maybe it’s do with the fitness and they run out of steam towards the end of the innings. It’s understandable that Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are coming back after injuries, they also don’t have a seam bowling all-rounder to take the load off their pacers, but what is also not helping them is their defensive strategy but that’s how Indians have always played their cricket.

Their major concern lies in their batting and only Sachin Tendulkar has looked to be in complete ease. Gautam Gambhir is looking terrible and he seems to be facing the same problem as Phil Hughes. Even Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman haven’t looked their usual sorts. What adds to the concern is the crucial number six and seven position. Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s form in Test cricket hasn’t been good off late and ever since the retirement of Sourav Ganguly in 2008, the Indians have struggled to fill the number six slot. However I feel the Indians should persist with Virat Kohli as he is genuinely a good batsman and a prolific run getter. The problem maybe he bats higher up in the one-day format, so it seems he is comfortable batting up in the order.

The Australians were very impressive in the first Test. Their bowling was a combined effort, which won them the Test. The batting at times was found wanting but it was good to see that the veterans making the difference and also the tail applying themselves. Ed Cowan, who is more of an old fashioned opening batsman had a good debut and probably could have gone on to score more before he was given caught behind in the first innings. The umpiring hasn’t been great and I don’t understand the logic of Indians to not favour the DRS. The system may not be perfect but it definitely reduces the errors and the percentage of the correct decision goes up. This has been proven that DRS reduce the wrong decisions and it simply baffles me on why the Indians are against the system!