India’s middle order has some glaring issue

India haven’t gone on a tour of England with the kind of man-to-man advantage over the home side in a very long time. A lot of it has to do with England’s flaky batting pitted against India’s fast bowling arsenal.

But few would have thought India’s own middle-order, comprising Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane—all having played over 75 Test matches—would become grounds for conceding some of that advantage. That’s how meagre their returns have been for the last year-and-a-half.

In the ongoing Lord’s Test for example, where KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma gave a masterclass of scoring in seam-friendly English conditions, India’s middle order crumbled yet again. It was down to Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to do the rescue act, an all-so-familiar pattern by now.

In 2020-21 India have played in some tough batting conditions, in a diverse spread from New Zealand to Australia, England and at home on dusty turning tracks. But they have found batsmen who have discovered ways to score runs.

From Sharma (avg 47.78), who until three years ago didn’t know if he was ever going to crack Test cricket, to Pant (41.82) who continues to redesign Test match batting modules and from

Jadeja (45.60) batting at No.7 to Rahul (79.66) who wasn’t even going to start the series, India have found runs from unexpected quarters.

The famed middle order’s scoring graph has nosedived in 2020-21, and 13 Test matches give a fair idea if that’s just a blip in form or something more technical and mental. Pujara is averaging 25.09 during this period, Kohli 24.18 and Rahane 25.76. That’s a sharp decline from where they were before 2020— Pujara averaged close to 50, Kohli 54.97 and Rahane 43.74. These numbers suggest Kohli’s struggles are just as acute as the other two.

But in Kohli’s case, not only is he the captain and foremost batsman of the side, but he has also played some innings with high batting control percentage. Like the first innings of the Adelaide Test (74), two Tests in Chennai (72 and 62) against England and in the first innings of the World Test Championship final (44) against New Zealand. At Lord’s too, he was shaping up well with his 42.

Also, if you go further back in time, Kohli’s numbers improve significantly from the 2018 tour, making all the technical adjustments to succeed in England. Pujara and Rahane (despite a decent tour in 2014), however, haven’t been consistent.

Both are averaging in the midtwenties. When you put them in context with the two all-time leading run-scorers for Ind England—sachin Tendulkar 54.31) and Rahul Dr (68.80)—even Sourav Gan averages 65—it shows the rent crop of middle-order b men have fallen well short o benchmarks set in facing Dukes ball.

It’s worrying that in Puj case, his struggles have b against different forms of b ing. Jack Leach’s left-armcaught him at the crease o too often in India while he come woefully short aga swing, both in New Zealand in England. Pujara’s best formance continues to b Australia.

In Rahane’ case, thi become worse when you sider that he’s had 17 sc below 40 in 22 innings. Eve pattern of dismissals has b varied—from chasing wide d eries in England to get bowled through the gat Anderson at home and get out to uncharacteristic p against Neil Wagner.

It’s because of this dodgy f of the middle order that Su kumar Yadav and Prithvi S have been summoned England. India also have Ma Agarwal and Hanuma Vi waiting to get a look in. Bu the likes of Pujara and Rah at 33, comebacks don’t c easy. It’s a moment of trut both of them, and an equ critical call for India to ma things go south from here.