England vs India 2018: 4 tactical changes India need to make for the second Test match

#1 Bring in Cheteshwar Pujara

India need Pujara to provide stability

The most hurting factor from India’s performances in the first Test was that no player other than Virat Kohli showed character to put a fight while batting.

The body language of most batsmen looked hesitant and that disrupted their decision making in many ways. It is astonishing how Kohli scored 200 runs in the entire Test match and India managed only 436 runs in total.

That is 45.87% runs scored by the Indian captain. While Indian can be immensely proud of having a batsman like Kohli, it clearly indicates the dependency on the Indian captain. India needs someone other than Kohli to step up every now and then to not only relieve the pressure from Kohli’s shoulders but also provide the support that can lead to big scores.

Ajinkya Rahane was dismal with his performance with the bat and it seems that his spot in the starting XI is more under scrutiny than most players right now and it is best that he’s given some time to figure out his mistakes and rework on his form.

India needs stability in the middle order and someone like Cheteshwar Pujara can just do that. Pujara needs to come in for Rahane in the second Test match itself to make sure India doesn’t just rely on Kohli when it comes to stepping it up with the bat.

In the 58 matches Pujara has played, he has an average of 50.34 and has scored four out of his 14 centuries away from India.

His defensive technique has been quite effective overseas and he will be needed to make sure India have someone to hold things tight in the middle order.