Australia vs India 2018-19: 3 areas where India should improve

It was the 53rd over for Ravichandran Ashwin who had been unlucky at times but had dried runs totally by bowling at one end relentlessly. It was the last over before tea, a break where every Indian would have cleared out their bladder. It was the tension of epic proportions out there for 11 Indian men where even front foot defence was starting to haunt them.

And as it turned out Hazlewood, the Aussie no. 11, was going to block six cherries once again before handing his wicket to KL Rahul and with that, the Bharath army and 1.25 Billion people back home erupted with joy. It was a neck to neck game where Aussie's lower order had started to pick the bones out of Indian seamers, but before they ran out of bones the Indian bowlers showed then the pavilion all the time.

It felt though that the history would remain intact looking at Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon batting in the middle. Even though they couldn't take Australia home it taught Indians another lesson as Test match does always, that of never letting the foot off from the pedal at any moment, especially in Tests.

Here are the five important aspects where India should improve before they go to Perth.

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1) Lower Middle-order

Indian middle-order though batter well in the second innings only to give away the hard work done in the fragile hands of lower-order batters. India was 282-5 at one stage and suddenly in a matter of time, they were all out for 307. This must be rectified because not every day you get away with such blunders against a home side like Australia.

Pant needs to understand that not every match is an opportunity to score a century in his flashy T20 style. Rahane though better well still needs to improve against the quick early on in his innings. Rest of the batters along with Ashwin needs to learn from Aussie and English lower-order batters and hang around when a set batsman is there at another end.

2) Opening pair

India, after all these overseas matches, still isn't able to find themselves a proper opening pair. They haven't had a great success in South Africa England and after from the second innings at Adelaide showed us why they are the slowest learners in this team.

Murali Vijay might have scored a century in the practice match but it didn't reflect one bit in this Test match. KL Rahul must understand this might be his last overseas tour with his beloved captain Kohli if he doesn't perform.

In the second innings, they put up a 63-run stand and it was their highest in this entire year, and that goes to show why Indian team's failure in overseas. The team needs to tell openers what their actual job is, in the middle.

3) Bowlers need to clean up the tail

India won the Test match because of their bowlers who picked up all the 20 wickets that are required. But when looked at the number of runs scored that the tailenders have scored against Indian pacers, it is an alarming sign already. This has to be a serious issue that needs to be addressed by skipper and coach.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is the best bowling line-up India has had in a long time. They have the ability to bowl at 140+kmph even at the end of the day. They have a different kind of bowlers all around. Ishant hits the deck hard, Shami is skiddy, Bumrah brings uniqueness, Bhuvi has swing and Umesh has a striking pace.

They have to understand that taking first 5 or 6 wickets aren't cleaning up but really rattling the tailenders is what helps the team build pressure on the opposition especially in overseas. In England, Sam Curran was their nemesis and surely it looked like Cummins and Lyon were 2.0 of Sam Curran in the fourth Innings.