Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels the lack of partnership led to the team’s downfall in the second pink-ball Test match against Australia at Adelaide. India could only manage scores of 180 and 175 runs in the second game and thus could not manage a big partnership.
Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored with 42 runs in both innings but none of the other batters could show much resistance. Singh reckons it is imperative for India to build a big partnership in the Brisbane Test to have enough runs on the board.
In the second innings of the opening Test at Perth, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 201 runs for the opening alliance and India will want a similar partnership in the third Test.
“One area where India would like to improve is the partnership. We need to have big partnerships. We didn’t get a good partnership in Adelaide because of which we did not have enough runs on the board. If we have 300-350 on the board then our bowlers have the capability to bowl them out,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports.
On the other hand, former Australian Test opener Matthew Hayden feels India didn’t bat well in the second Test as they failed to put enough runs on the board.
“Team India just did not bat well enough, there’s no doubt. Even though this was a difficult track to bat on, they should not have been bowled out in under a day and a half. So that needs to be rectified for the Brisbane Test match,” Hayden said.
Hayden said India’s bowling was good with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj taking four wickets each but praised Travis Head for his blistering knock.
“Bowling I thought, on average was pretty good. When you thought of the freakish innings that Travis Head played, 140 off 141 deliveries that was just something else. Sometimes, batsmen have their way,” Heyden said.
The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 14.
