5 factors that are necessary for Team India to emulate their home success in overseas conditions

#2 Not losing wickets in clusters

India have been losing wickets in clusters away from home

In conditions that are helpful for the pacers, it becomes an arduous task to string together partnerships consistently. The wickets can come at any time and the batsmen need to be technically very good in order to score the big runs. The batsmen have to be patient, even when the run-scoring gets tough and look for the opportunities to rotate the strike.

The Indian Test team has been facing a problem of losing their wickets in clusters in the overseas series. There have been numerous instances of the Indian team collapsing, sometimes even after a very good partnership that has taked the team to a position of strength. To cite a few examples, during the chase against Australia at Adelaide, India lost the last eight wickets for just 73 runs, thereby losing the Test which was in their grasp.

In the same series at Melbourne, after the aggressive partnership between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, the stage was all set for India to take the lead. But, another collapse meant that the last seven wickets could muster up just 56 runs and India had to fight it out in the second innings to save the Test. The Tests at Auckland and Galle were also lost due to the wickets that fell in heaps, as the batsmen could not build useful partnerships.

Losing the wickets in clusters does not allow the team to come back into the game and the momentum change can be defining, for not just that match, but, also the series. The Indian team must be wary of this and ensure that the soft dismissals and run-outs are kept in check.