Australia vs India 2018-19: Too much expectations on the Indian tail?

There has been a constant debate throughout the India-Australia Test series over the batting performance of the Indian lower-order saying that the Indian tail hasn't been wagging enough. Comparisons were drawn with the English and Australian lower-order. Even the Indian batting coach has mentioned that they need their lower-order to contribute more runs to the scoreboard. But is it really fair to expect the Indian bowlers to score more runs?

Firstly, if we take a look at the batting stats of the Aussie lower-order in the second Test, barring Pat Cummins, no one has scored double digits in the first innings. In the second innings too, only Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have added significant runs to the score tally. Although it is surprising for the Indian cricket veterans and fans to see the Australian lower-order batsmen among the runs, such batting performances are bound to occur from Starc and Cummins, as they rank among the top 10 all-rounders in Test cricket. Many may consider them as plain fast bowlers but the stark reality is they are all-rounders.

So when the Australian "tail" is scoring heavily compared to the Indian lower-order, one must remember that the Australian lower-order consists of all-rounders who bat deep until number 8 and number 9.

India, on the other hand, has bowlers but not all-rounders from number eight and it has fielded only one all-rounder in Hanuma Vihari for the second Test, who has batted at number 6. Although he has not bowled a lot of overs like Ashwin, he has performed at a comparable level with his Australian counterparts by taking two wickets in the first innings and delivering a miserly spell in the second along with valuable contributions with the bat.

In the first Test match, Indians had an all-rounder in the form of Ashwin, who is also among the top 10 all-rounders in Tests. He has rightly delivered by picking up wickets and by scoring a useful 30 in the first innings. He was later replaced by Umesh Yadav, a bowler in the second Test, leading to the dearth of a batsman in the Indian line-up.

It is agreeable to expect runs from the Indian "tail" when it is filled with all-rounders like the Australian team. When not more than one all-rounder is in the team, it is not fair to put the blame on the lower-order batsmen for the lack of runs on the scoreboard. As rightly mentioned by one of the Indian commentators, one cannot win matches when the scorecard almost always reads 5/1 or 10/2.

The Indian "tail" is rightly doing what they are supposed to do by picking up 20 wickets of the opposition come every Test match. If India wants to pile up runs, it needs to look towards its top-order batsmen to deliver, not the tail.