Captain Anil Kumble says the Indians will have to markedly improve their run-rate in the second Sydney cricket Test if they are to prevent Australia.
SYDNEY: Captain Anil Kumble says the Indians will have to markedly improve their run-rate in the second Sydney cricket Test if they are to prevent Australia from holding on to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ricky Ponting's Australians inflicted one of India's heaviest Test defeats winning the Boxing Day Test by 337 runs on Saturday's fourth day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It was Australia's 15th consecutive Test victory and they will equal their world record of 16 wins set from October 1999 to February 2001 with victory in Wednesday's second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
A victory in Sydney will also secure the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the Aussies with a 2-0 lead after winning the last series in India 2-1 in 2004.
One of India's major problems heading into the New Year's Test is their painstaking scoring rate at the top of the innings which put pressure on the team chasing down Australia's first innings of 343.
The tourists were dismissed for sub-200 totals in both innings -- 196 and 161 -- of a Test for the first time in more than five years.
Experienced batsman Rahul Dravid was the main culprit, crawling along with a total of 21 runs off 180 balls.
When he was dismissed in the first innings India were 31 for two after almost 100 minutes and 54 for two in two and a half hours of the second innings.
There are calls for Dravid to be returned to his more customary No.3 batting position, where he has batted in 146 of his 199 Test innings.
Kumble said after Saturday's Test that he was not going to rush in and make changes before the Sydney Test.
"We will think about our combination when we get to Sydney and look at the pitch," Kumble said.
"He (Dravid) is too good a player to worry about his batting. He just needs to go out there and enjoy his batting.
"I'm positive that he can do that. He has played more than 100 Test matches and scored more than 9,000 runs. I am really confident he will be able to come out and bat the way he does."
Kumble said India's snail-paced scoring in the Melbourne was a problem. They crawled along at 2.7 runs an over in the first innings compared to Australia's 3.7.
"It is a concern. If you are looking to win Test matches you need a positive and healthy run rate," he said.
"Obviously, the conditions did not help and the way the Aussies bowled and we lost wickets at regular intervals didn't help.
"I'm sure the run rate will pick up and we have the batting to do that. Going forward I'm confident we have the batting line up to be positive and do well.
"It's just a matter of going out there and batting freely. We didn't do that in our two innings.
"Maybe it was the (lack of) preparations. They (batsmen) didn't have enough time to adjust to the conditions and go out and bat freely and play their natural game.
"It is something we will discuss and make sure they are relaxed and positive when they go out on the field.
One of the team considerations will be whether to bring back either one of the unused openers, Virender Sehwag (4,155 runs at 49.46) or Dinesh Karthik (931 at 32.10), put Dravid back to No.3 and drop No.6 Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj was one of the major disappointments for India in the opening Test with scores of a duck and five, lethargic in the field, and receiving a charge of dissent from the umpires, for which he was subsequently found not guilty.
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