Cautious batting does pay off in NZ

2018-19, with some lengthy stays at the crease anchoring the innings.

Placing a batting order is not an alternative to playing a game of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. It’s important to get the balance right and to place players in a position where they are comfortable and hence more likely to succeed.

Pujara normally bats behind Rohit and Mayank Agarwal and ahead of Kohli. That’s an adequate amount of stroke-play surrounding Pujara and as a judicious shot-maker he’s ideal at three for balance. Mind you, Pujara needs to be careful he doesn’t slip into “net practice” mode and forget that the object in a match is to score runs regularly.

The other thing that Pujara has to be aware of—batting in the midst of stroke-makers—is not keeping them becalmed at the non-striker’s end for long periods. In Christchurch, he found the ideal balance of caution mixed with aggression.

With Rohit absent through injury it fell to the talented and audacious Prithvi Shaw to open the batting. There’s no doubting Shaw’s precocious talent but he needs to learn that there are times for caution against good bowling.

All his innings in both ODIS and Tests in New Zealand have been sprinkled with sparkling boundaries and he’s got away to a start each time but hasn’t managed a big score. He needs to understand that a quickfire 20 at the right time might win a T20 encounter but dismissal at that stage of a Test innings can be extremely costly. Things looked more promising after a flurry of boundaries in Christchurch but again he was dismissed at an inopportune time.

Needing to unearth the formula for success and rebound quickly, India were again made to struggle in Christchurch. Apart from needing a victory to level the series and restore confidence, there’s an important psychological reason for righting the ship.

India have a tough tour of Australia next summer and New Zealand were just obliterated by them under their home conditions. If the Indian men want to replicate the success their female counterparts are currently enjoying in Australia, they’ll need to re-discover the art of amassing match-winning scores.