India were ruthless in the first Test when they crushed West Indies by 318 runs. The bowlers were on point, the middle order stepped up when things went south and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja played a superb innings in the first dig when India's backs were against the wall.
However, despite all these positives, there is an issue which needs to be spoken about, an issue which has plagued Indian cricket for a long time now. The opening woes continue to haunt India and despite shuttling between different options, the solutions have not yet surfaced.
Mayank Agarwal, who was impressive in his maiden Test series in Australia, did not hit his stride in both the innings and KL Rahul, despite having all the talent and pedigree, and despite getting the nod from the management, continues to throw away starts. This is what the focus should be for Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri ahead of the second Test match.
Rahul, Mayank need to buckle down
However, Rahul continues to insist that he is in good touch and that he now needs to buckle down and look at batting patiently for longer periods of time.
"Very disappointed but there are a lot of things I'm doing right. (I) Just need to keep my head down and show some patience," Rahul said at the end of Day 4.
"I just have to prolong the good things I'm doing till I get to 35-45. I'm batting well, I looked comfortable in both the innings and my head-space is very good. Happy about a lot of things. If I can keep my patience and keep batting the way I do in the first 60-80 balls, if I continue to do that for 200-250 balls then it'll obviously benefit me and the team," he further added.
India will not be too worried about Mayank Agarwal as the young man tasted his first failure after five innings and even in Antigua when the conditions were tough in the first morning, he looked rather assured in the first innings.
It should be mentioned here that before India kickstarted their campaign in the World Test Championship, captain Virat Kohli had confessed that the standards of batting have not seen an improvement when pitted against good bowlers.
"Well, if I have to be brutally honest, I don't think us batsmen have lived up to the standard. We have travelled a lot over the past year and a half and it's been challenging. We lost in England but won in Australia because the batsmen pulled up. As much as individuals standout, I think it's about batting well as a team and every team wants to put up a strong total on the board for the bowlers to come in and capitalise," Kohli said.
It is now time for the batsmen, especially the openers to pull their socks up and buckle down to play an innings for the long haul in the upcoming games, for facing the new ball will be key for India's campaign in the World Test Championship.
