India's batting will be in the spotlight in the second Test against England in Vizag, come the second of February, after the Hyderabad debacle for various reasons. Firstly, India will be without Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, safe to say three of India's heavy scorers in the format in the last year or so, which means an inexperienced middle-order. To add to those holes is the treacherous form of a couple of batters, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer.
Iyer has scored 131 runs in the last 10 innings while Gill has 160 runs to his name in the same period. Both have been unable to get runs off their bats and with the likes of Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan waiting in the wings, could they run out of their chances? The Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour doesn't think so. Rathour in a press conference two days before the Vizag Test urged for everyone's patience regarding these batters given both are very new in their Test careers.
"There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket. So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like (Shubman) Gill, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and (Shreyas) Iyer will eventually start getting big runs, I'm sure of it," Rathour said.
Rathour admitted that the batters needed to be disciplined in the second innings in Hyderabad while asking them to be clear with their plans.
Chasing 231 runs, India fell short by 28 runs in the second innings in Hyderabad, despite taking a 190-run lead in the first innings. India are set to make at least a couple of changes to their line-up in the second Test match with Jadeja and Rahul ruled out but apart from these, will the hosts tinker with their bowling combination too? That's a headache the team management would want relief to as soon as possible.
