Team India may be on the verge of winning the ongoing Test series against the West Indies, irrespective of the result of the second game in Port of Spain, Trinidad, however, the visitors have faced flak for their approach. Despite facing a weaker opponent compared to the likes of Australia, England or South Africa, Team India has played good old Test cricket of grinding it out, spending time on the crease with little to no hurry.
While in the first Test, the Indian batters scored just 232 runs on Day 2 with 10 wickets in hand when they began the day, in the second game they slowed down after a quick-ish start by the openers, skipper Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Rohit and Jaiswal's partnership was worth 139 runs in less than 32 overs before the middle-order including Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin all played themselves in and helped India get to 438 runs.
The score may be a big one, however, the team has been on the receiving end for taking 128 overs to score those many runs against a team like West Indies. Indian actor Nakuul Mehta took to Twitter during the match saying that teams like England and Australia just look hungrier as compared to Rohit Sharma and Co. while mentioning the fact that India scored 288/4 on the first day.
"The current Indian teams test performance against Windies is proof that we are long way away from a icc championship win. The English & Aussies are way hungrier right now whilst we are managing to put up a measly 280 odd run score on a full day against a very weak bowling line up," Mehta wrote on Twitter.
Since the disruption caused by Bazball in Test cricket for the past 12 months or so, the need to move forward rather than ape what England have been doing has become the need of the hour. Yes, it can be said that India are missing their X-factor in Rishabh Pant, who has been playing Bazball before the term was even coined. But the lack of intent and the inability to move the scorecard forward at a reasonable rate and waiting for things to happen has been on show rather frequently in the two matches and the fans, the viewers and the experts will hope that this will change come December in the rainbow nation.
