From 2129 runs in Australia to 3809 in England: The secret to India's batting turnaround revealed

Indian Express

3 hours ago

By January when the Border-Gavaskar Trophy ended this year, India scored a grand total of 2126 runs in the five-Test series against Australia. By August, for the same number of Tests in England, the tally skyrocketed to 3809, the second highest-ever aggregate runs in a series, since Tests were formalised a century-and-a-half back.
How did the molehill turn into a mountain in a matter of months? The quality of pitches and bowlers could be a factor but that can't be the primary reason for this abnormal Indian run-spike and Shubman Gill's young team's record-breaking historic feat. There is more to the story of Indian batting's smooth transition in the post Virat Kohli-Rohit Sharma era.
Voices from the Indian dressing room – officially and anonymously – have hinted at the introduction of a new batting approach that magically turned a bunch of talented but under-performing Test batsmen into run machines. The new batting modus operandi is closer to the good-old Test match approach and more refined than the batting philosophy prevalent over the last few years. The small tweak is in the messaging. Unlike in the past, batsmen aren't told to constantly look for runs or forced to 'show intent' – the buzzword of the previous era.
In Australia, the Indian batsmen didn't spend much time on the pitch. They were restless, they got edgy when the dot balls piled up. The lack of patience would see them go searching for the boundary balls since they were under instruction to 'show intent' all the time. For some it worked, for most it didn't. In Australia it overwhelmingly flopped. Batsmen would get out poking at balls that were best left alone or they would gift wickets to bowlers while attempting big shots against good balls. Advanced data, made available from Cricket-21, showed Indian batsmen on the 2024-25 tour of Australia, were not in control of the strokes they played and committed fatal errors.
India's false shot percentage dropped down to 15.9 percent across 1052.1 overs of batting in England, a significant upgrade from the 19.90 false shot percentage in only 657 overs in Australia.
For the England tour, after intense scrutiny, a fresh plan was presented to the young batting line-up minus Kohli and Rohit. At the core of the change was head coach Gautam Gambhir's strong conviction – the one that he shared with the dressing room on landing in England – that his new-look wasn't a 'young team but a gun team'.
Acknowledging the proven international credentials of Shubman & Co and appreciating the hours they put in at the nets, the batting line-up was told to be patient and not be over-eager to hunt boundary balls. Their extensive white-ball experience, they were reminded, gave them the muscle memory to dispatch bad balls out of the boundary.
Seek and you shall not find but trust your instincts and the runs will come by – that is the new golden principle of this team.
It helped that for the first time since Gambhir took over, the Indian team had a batting coach in Sitanshu Kotak, not an international star but a battle-hardened domestic batsman in his playing days who put a high-price tag on his wicket. After a long first-class career and extensive experience of playing club cricket in England, Kotak coached Saurashtra team for five years and later joined Rahul Dravid's team at NCA and was in charge of India A team.
There was a constant shadow of Gambhir and Kotak at the batting nets all through the England tour. On the ground, there were no long chats but subtle signaling. Kotak would appreciate and applaud every good stroke a batsman played while Gautam would be in the background nodding his head. Once in a while the head coach would have a short chat as a padded up batsman moved from the nets to where the kit bags were put.
The two batsmen with dramatic turnarounds from Australia to England have been Shubman and Rishabh Pant. Once again the statistics show that the reason for their stupendous run was how they had cut down on risks and thus minimised the errors they committed.
The idea conveyed by the coaches to the next big two Indian batsmen was to spend more time on the pitch. The coaches felt that batsmen of the caliber of Shubman and Pant would always find a way to score runs regardless of the challenges that pitch and bowlers threw at them. But for that they needed to be at the crease for a much longer time than they did in Australia.
They did. While Gill was dismissed roughly every 32 balls in Australia, the Englishmen only had a chance once every 115 deliveries during a record-breaking run where he faced 1150 balls. The count similarly shot up for Pant from 48 balls per wicket in Australia to 88.17 on average in England. More time at the crease meant increased command over attacking shots. Gill's control percentages on attacking strokes against pace vaulted from 71.9 (in 32 balls) in Australia to 89.8 percent in England, lasting 215 balls. Shoring up his attacking shots average from 40.5 to 58 between the two series, Pant's control similarly soared from 71.4 in Australia to 86.5 in England.
Pant would hint at the new batting change after he scored two hundreds in the first Test. This was his first Test outing after the miserable Aussie tour, where he scored just one fifth of this haul in 5 Tests. 'Aap apni khamiyon pe work karte ho (You work on your limitations) … that helps to change a setback into a comeback … I am able to change myself through hard work, focus and a bit of discipline,' he said. That 'bit of discipline' was the reason why opinions about Pant the batsman were changing. Sunil Gavaskar, who famously reacted to one of his ugly hoicks in Australia with a 'stupid, stupid, stupid' comment was now calling Pant's Leeds effort 'superb, superb, superb.'
There was another hint – this time by Shubman before the second Test – that something new was cooking in the Indian dressing room. In the first Test, Shubman had scored a sparkling 147, his career best at that point. His innings had ended with an embarrassing mode of dismissal – he had needlessly stepped out to the unremarkable offie Shoaib Basheer, didn't reach the pitch of the ball, still swung his bat and gave a catch to the only player on the square boundary. Shubman would blame himself for the Leeds defeat and at the pre-second Test press conference said that he needed to be more selective in his strokes even when he was in such fine touch. The next game he spent more time on crease, better than his career best, scoring a 269.
Pant has been a revelation in this series. He is the vice-captain, a seasoned player at 27, but he is the find of the tour. Never ever in his international career has the solidity of his batting stood out like it did in England. He still reads the mind of the bowler and steps out of the crease to unsettle him – a clear calculated risk that gives him a mental edge in his battle with the rival bowler and the captain. He still goes tumbling down while scooping the ball over the wicket-keeper's head but there rarely is a loose drive or half-hearted pull shot.
But the most assuring sight for the Indian dressing room was his stout and sturdy defense. His dead bat defense can break the heart of any inspired bowlers, Ben Stokes included. Like Shubman, he also makes amends after hitting a rash stroke. After getting out to the offie Basheer on the fence, he came roaring back to punish the bowler in the next Test and hit a hundred.
The way that the team management treats Pant shows that India's batting plan is not etched in stone. They can be customised. It is learnt that Gambhir doesn't push the 'patience' policy too hard on the team's two free-flowing batsmen – Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal. They aren't asked to totally curb their attacking instincts. Pant and Jaiswal are told to be watchful. The thought behind this is to make them realise the importance of being judicious by their own experience. That realisation seemed to have dawned on Pant, it seems. Jaiswal is still a work in progress.
After 13 years of international cricket, one of Indian cricket's most accomplished all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja had the best batting series of his career. He looked in touch in Australia but in England he proved to be the spine of the batting line-up. There hasn't been a big change in his batting approach. Jadeja anyways wasn't in the business of 'showing intent'. What has worked for the all-rounder has been the respect and importance he is finally getting that is on par with his stature. For long one-of-the backroom boys, Gambhir, Kotak and Jadeja can be seen going into a huddle many a time in the nets. Look for the hug Jadeja gave Gambhir after the Oval win to understand the role played by coaches.
KL Rahul, the second highest scorer of the series, too was more sure about his stroke play in England as compared to Australia. Data shows he played 177 attacking shots in England as compared to 85 in Australia, the confidence coming from his ability to spot the bad balls and avoid playing the good ones.
As the long tour progressed, India's tailenders too started contributing with the bat. They almost dragged India across the line at Lord's. No.10 and 11 – Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj – gave Jadeja company at Lord's as India almost accomplished the impossible. Given the top order came up woefully short at Lord's, it can be said that this batting model is still work in progress, and needs greater grit when chasing totals in fourth innings, on tougher pitches.
But Akash Deep's unexpected 66 as night watchman showed the change has trickled down the order and run-making is infectious.