3 reasons why India should play 6 specialist batsmen in Australia

The Indian Test team's overseas woes seem to be a never-ending saga as they flatter to deceive every time they go out of Asia. Post-2011 World Cup, India has lost overseas tours far too often despite having a talented bunch of players.

The Indian Test team played their best cricket overseas for about 10 years prior to the 2011 World Cup led by some of the best batsmen in the world and few world class bowlers as well.

The Present team also boasts of some world class batsmen and an outstanding bowling line-up, but their overseas performance seems to be on the other end of the spectrum.

Team India failed both in South Africa and England earlier this year. The bowling unit delivered on both these tours but the batting bar Virat Kohli failed to live up to expectations.

Due to these reasons, the underperforming batting unit needs a bit of restructuring for the Australian tour and one of those steps is the inclusion of 6 specialist batsmen in the team.

Let us take a look at three reasons as to why India should include 6 specialist batsmen in their playing eleven during the Australian tour:

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#3 All-rounders are deficient in their batting skills in the overseas environment

All-rounders have not been successful outside Asia

On paper, the Indian team has three all-rounders namely Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. These players have an excellent batting record in India but their overseas batting record is nothing to write home about.

In spite of getting multiple opportunities, these players have not been able to perform with the bat outside Asia. It's high time that Indian management accepts the fact that these players cannot be considered all-rounders in alien conditions.

Since these players are not consistent enough on the batting front and Indian batting needs an additional hand in overseas conditions, it will be more prudent to play a specialist batsman in place of these so-called all-rounders.

#2 Recent batting struggles outside Asia

Indian batting has struggled in alien conditions

Indian batting has struggled outside Asia for the last 7-8 years. Collective batting success has eluded the Indian team during these years, although there have been flashes of individual brilliance, that is not enough to win series abroad.

Lately, India has adopted the strategy of playing 5 bowlers due to which there is space to play only 5 specialist batsmen in the squad.

Since Indian batting is struggling at present, this approach has further depleted an already struggling resource. It would be much more sensible to include an additional batsman to provide the much-needed cushion to a struggling batting line-up.

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#1 Well oiled bowling department

Ishant has bowled really well for India lately

The Indian team of the earlier years used to struggle to pick twenty wickets in a match while their batting used to be their strength.

Lately, the situation has reversed- the Indian bowling has been looking supremely good while their batting is struggling. But the hangover of the earlier teams where Indian bowling was weak is still very much visible in their current approach.

The Indian team has consistently added an extra bowler in the place of a batsman. By doing this, the team is adding further ammunition to an already strong department while weakening a department which is vulnerable.

It would be much more sensible to add an extra batsman in place of a bowler, which on most occasions ends up being under-bowled.