After registering a massive win in the first Test over the visitors, India will take on Australia in the second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on February 17th.
The first match turned out to be a humbling experience for the visitors as the Indian bowlers completely destroyed the Australian batting unit. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin ran through their batting lineup in both innings, bowling them out for paltry totals of 177 and 91 respectively. Apart from Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne’s brief period of dominance in the first innings, there wasn’t much to talk about from the Aussie batters. They will need to come up with a much improved performance in this match, which is going to be played on a spinning track again.
Indian bowling was superb. The spinners performed as expected, but seamers like Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj were excellent in their brief spells as well. Skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front with a superb innings of 120, whereas all-rounders Jadeja and Axar Patel contributed with affluent knocks of 70 and 88 respectively. The middle-order of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav failed to deliver, and that’s why better things will be expected from them in this game.
Probable Starting Lineups
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
Key Players
Ravindra Jadeja: The Indian all-rounder made a comeback in the last match after being out of action for a long period due to injury and delivered straight away. Jadeja picked up seven wickets while scoring 70 in the first Test. He will be looking to deliver here once again.
Todd Murphy: The debutant was the pick of the Australian bowlers in the last match as he bowled a superb spell and accounted for seven Indian wickets. Murphy will be Australia’s go-to bowler in this match once again.
Prediction
It is very difficult to beat India in conditions that assist spinners and the last match served as an excellent example of that. The conditions in Delhi are expected to be similar to those in Nagpur. So, a similar outcome can be expected, with India registering another commanding win.
