Former Australia skipper Mark Taylor gave a piece of valuable advice to Team India to bounce back in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after suffering a humiliating defeat in Adelaide Test. India will lock horns against Australia on December 26 at Melbourne Cricket Ground as the visitors batting unit will be under a lot of scanners as they were bundled out for their lowest-ever Test score of 36 in their second innings of opening Test.
Taylor believes that India’s best chance to win the Boxing Day clash is to put runs on the board.
“India’s best chance is to put runs on the board. They’ve still got some very fine players. Obviously (Virat) Kohli leaves a big hole in terms of batting and leadership, but they’ve still got (Cheteshwar) Pujara and (Ajinkya) Rahane,” Taylor told ‘Wide World of Sports’.
Taylor claimed that Team India has a good bowling attack which has the potential to take 10 wickets and it’s the batsmen job to give them plenty of runs at the scoreboard.
“If they put runs on the board, they’ve got the bowling attack to take 10 wickets. If India have runs to play with, their bowlers can do the job.”
Before suffering a batting collapse on day three of the first Test, India had taken a vital 53-run first-innings lead after the second day’s play and looked in a comfortable position. Taylor feels the visitors had one bad day and they should not let that innings define their entire tour.
“India can’t let one bad innings define their tour. If you put the Adelaide match into perspective, they probably won the first two days. Obviously, they got belted on the third, but you’re allowed to have one bad day. The key will be to see how they bounce back.
“I think day one in Melbourne is absolutely crucial for India’s chances in the series,” he added.
Taylor reckons that it will be a tougher job for India in the remaining matches in the absence of skipper Virat Kohli as the former Aussie cricketer feels it will be a bigger hole to fill his leadership.
“I think it’s certainly going to be tougher for them to bounce back without Kohli, obviously they’ve lost an outstanding batsman. But the bigger hole to fill is his leadership, and the drive he gives the side,” he said.
“That will be the area that Rahane and the team management will have to be conscious of, and I’m sure they will be.
“They’ll have been working hard, firstly to put Adelaide behind them, and secondly to make sure they hit the ground running on Boxing Day,” Taylor added.
(With PTI Inputs)
