CHENNAI: One thing this Indian team doesn't do is over-analyse. They didn't go down that hole after the 36 all out at Adelaide. So it's no surprise to note that they haven't strayed into that territory after that loss against England in the first Test here.
Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane admitted as much in the pre-match press conference. "Regrouping is addressing concerns but not tending to over-think. At times when you lose, you tend to delve deep into the reasons and that brings in negativity and it's not your fault but you still start blaming yourself. What happened in the last Test, we need to accept. We need to move on."
One more loss, India would be staring down the barrel. The famed MA Chidambaram square has been the point of discussion so far and will be in focus for the next five days if the game goes to the wire. Move on is something they did well post that Adelaide defeat. But they haven't been in this situation at home a lot of times.
Under the pump at home after losing the first game of a series: it's only happened thrice since the beginning of 2010.
Rahane himself did well to move on to the post that Adelaide debacle. As a stand-in captain in Melbourne, he scored a match-winning 100. But one reason why India lost that first Test was a lack of runs from the middle-order.
The main weak-link in that middle-order in the first Test was Rahane's 1 and 0. In fact, apart from his Melbourne ton, he's had a long run of indifferent form. Sample these numbers: 0, 1, 24, 37, 4, 22, 27 n.o, 112, 0, 42, 9, 7, 29, 46 (recent innings first).
From the beginning of 2020, he has scored only 360 runs in 14 innings at an average of 27.69.
Those numbers do not inspire. However, when the Mumbaikar was about his string of low scores, he went on the offensive. "We are playing at home after two years. Our last home series was against South Africa. If you take (the scores of that series) out, you will find something over there," he said.
It's true, he did score runs against South Africa (115, 59, 27 n.o, 15) and Bangladesh (51 and 86) but when you are playing for an elite team, you cannot look at performances more than 15 years ago. "It's all about the team and not the individual and my focus is how I can contribute to the team. If you take out the last 10-15 Test matches, you will see some runs over there. I don't need to think about what's happening on the outside," he added.
Even if Rahane's place in the team is secure, he knows he has to become more consistent. Another reason why the team failed in the first Test was weak support spinners.
That could change this Test if Axar Patel makes his debut. "Everyone is in the mix. The good thing is Axar is fit and I am not going to tell you who is going to play tomorrow. See all our spinners are really good and given a chance they will all do really well."
Kuldeep Yadav is expected to play in place of Washington Sundar. "If you see the first two days (first Test), there was nothing for our spinners and fast bowlers. Considering we bowled 190 overs and they scored 578 runs, I thought we really bowled well. There was nothing on that wicket. If you see second innings, all our spinners, especially (Ravichandran) Ashwin, bowled really well. We are not too concerned about how our spinners are bowling and I am sure we will come out with a plan," he added.
If that plan works, then there could be a different result.