Batting the main concern for a struggling Indian side 

For being the top-ranked test team in the world, the Indian cricket team has had its fair share of problems with the top and middle order batsmen. Let's wind the clock back to the series against South Africa. India lost the series 2-1 and the scorecard reflects that. Captain Kohli was the only Indian batsmen to register a century in the entire series. All the other batsmen had a poor series with the bat with a rare 93 from rookie Hardik Pandya and a couple decent knocks by Cheteshwar Pujara.

Virat Kohli, the lone fighter

Moving on to England, the Indian team suffered a massive 4-1 loss. I think to be fair the result does not tell the tale of the series. The Indian team fought rather well, especially the bowlers only to be let down by the batsmen yet again. If one were to look at the entire series there was one name on top. The man who has been dominating the entire batting scene for quite sometime now- Virat Kohli. He was playing at a different level, the problem was that he did not receive much support. Again, the story had Virat as the hero and a few supporting roles played by Pujara and Rahane. One thing has to be said though, that last match, during the second innings for a minute I thought that India had a chance, a very faint ray of hope somewhere. The way KL and Rishab Pant played, that shows a lot of character and puts our worrying minds a bit at ease.

Captaincy issues

After the two overseas series defeat, the Indian team along with its skipper received a bit of criticism, not just for the batsmen not performing well, but even the team selection the captain with his coach had made. And that is exactly where the gripping issue lies, Kohli is the best batsmen in the world no doubt, but he needs to learn a lot more about how to lead and create the right balance in the squad.

The current Australian series

Now that we are down under, and a lot of people thought that without Smith and Warner the Aussies will be vulnerable. The first match was won by the Indian bowlers, but in the second they fell short and let the hosts level the series up.

The next two games will be high pressure not just for both teams but also for a very out of form KL Rahul. He has had a forgetful year with just one century in England among a string of under par scores.

It was Sourav Ganguly who once said that KL Rahul is the batsman that excites him. He surely has the talent, one hopes he starts living up to it before ending up being another cliched 'could have been' player. As far as the Indian batting is concerned, I think the opening pair needs to step up and give some breathing space to Kohli and Pujara.