Can India’s Batters Avoid The Airy-Fairy Shots?

Can some of the frontline batters of the Indian cricket team eschew playing the aerial shots in the remaining three Tests of the series against England? The ill-timed shots have caused their doom in recent times. There is no gainsaying the fact that the days of stonewalling are a thing of the past, one that would bring boredom during the six-hour action every day causing drawn results. The scoring rate, even on the not-so-perfect batting strips, has risen with England’s batters averaging 3.92 an over in the first two Tests in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam as against India’s 3.27 an over. Thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 209 India reached 396 in the first innings of the second Test in Visakhapatnam; a score 40 runs short of the first innings In Hyderabad where the total was 436 but which could have been upwards of 550 if only India’s top five were thoughtful in shot selection.  Both Test matches did not go beyond the fourth day and hopefully, India’s batters will respond appropriately to Head Coach Rahul Dravid’s observation that decision-making on the issue of shot selection is crucial to piling up runs, especially in the first innings. So can the big batters of India’s top and middle order cut out the frills of hitting airy-fairy shots that they did in the first innings in Hyderabad?  Ground shots yield good returns, food for thought for the lines of Sharma & company.