5 things that will help India on away tours

With the grand Indian home season coming to an end with the Sri Lanka series, there has been a lot of talk about preparing pitches that will suit South African conditions. After being dominant in all the test series at home so far, Kohli and Co. will face the real test away from home. South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand are the nations that India will tour in the course of the next 18 months, after the completion of the ongoing Sri Lanka series.

Last time around, Under Dhoni's captaincy, India fought well in all the matches except for the last 3 matches in England. But this Indian team have the potential to be more than just competitive in foreign conditions. However, they need to make sure they get these 5 things right in order to stand a chance to win or even draw the away legs.

1. Good opening partnerships

KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Shikar Dhawan are the three openers that India have at their disposal right now. It was very surprising to see Dhawan being given the nod ahead of Vijay in the Sri Lanka series.

While Dhawan is a match winner on his day, he has too many technical weaknesses that bowlers can work on. When it comes to playing quality fast bowling in lively tracks, your technique and mental toughness becomes more important than your strike rate and the ability to take the game away from the bowling team.

It's about grinding it out for a long period and earning your runs. In that aspect, quite clearly Vijay and Rahul are the go-to men. It's a blessing in disguise that Dhawan opted out of the next 2 matches. Vijay definitely needs a bulk of runs under his belt to get his mojo back.

2. Have a settled slip cordon

The cliche "catches win matches" is the most appropriate one in cricket. Slip catching has been a perennial problem in Indian cricket ever since Laxman and Dravid hung up their boots.

At the moment, the Indian slip cordon looks unsettled. While the outfielders have held on to their catches, the conversion rate of our slip fielders doesn't look good. Against spinners, Ajinkya Rahane has been brilliant in the slip position, but you can't expect spinners to create too many chances on foreign soil.

So the slip fielders should step up and convert the chances that are created by the fast bowlers. Too much chopping and changing will not serve the purpose for the Indian slip cordon.

3. Solving the spinner dilemma

It is a foregone conclusion that India will play just one spinner on the away tours.

Given the nature of pitches that are to be played on, a spinner's job will be more of a supporting cast to the seamers. Having said that, selecting one among Ashwin and Jadeja will be the most difficult task of all.

Both have been absolutely magnificent in the long home season. Jadeja, who was in Ashwin' s shadow for a long time has started winning matches for India on his own.

When it comes to batting, Ashwin has the better technique to combat swing, seam, pace and bounce. But Jadeja's quickfire runs cannot be underestimated.

Lower down the order, Jadeja is a very handy batsman. The fact that he is a left hander is another advantage for him. Picking one spinner over the other is a very happy headache that Indian Team will have.

4. Our tail should wag, not the opponents

Gone are the days when the tailenders used to put on a chest guard, have an ugly stance and miss the ball by a country mile just to watch the timber being disturbed. Every successful test team had a tail that contributed well with the bat. So the number of runs that our lower order batsmen make will be very important.

India stands 2nd when it comes to the number of runs made by the last 5 batsmen in the last 2 years. But they all have come mostly from spinners in Indian conditions. Indian fast bowlers have to put their hands up and chip in with some decent runs in order to boost the scorecard.

While fielding, the opposite scenario is the need of the hour. India need someone to step up and clean up the tail as quickly as possible like Mitchell Starc does for Australia. Yadav and Shami are the potential weapons for that job because of their raw pace, reverse swing and the ability to bowl toe crushing yorkers.

There have been quite a few matches where India let the match go of their grip because of the inability to wrap up the tail.

5. Big partnerships by the middle order batsmen

We saw Suranga Lakmal making Indian batsmen dance to his tunes in a pitch that didn't look any different from the outfield. Away tours won't be any different from Eden Gardens. If anything, it will only be more difficult for the batsmen to negotiate with extra pace and bounce.

Also, there is a considerable lift in terms of the quality of fast bowlers that we are talking about. Clearly, the Rabadas, Andersons, Starcs and Boults will be more lethal in their own background than Lakmal. They can make the ball talk.

So it is going to be relentless pressure at the batsman all the time. Big partnerships from the middle order are absolutely necessary to put on a good score. While Kohli has been playing brilliantly like Kohli always does, his runs will be absolutely crucial. Rahane's form has been worrying of late. He was India's best overseas batsman last time around.

A big-daddy hundred in his next 2 matches against Sri Lanka will do his confidence a world of good. Also if going with 6 proper batsmen is the plan, Rohit Sharma should be given enough time in the middle before he boards the flight to South Africa.

After the 2 centuries that he scored in Sachin's farewell series, he is yet to score a hundred in the purest form of cricket. The performances of India's No.5 and No.6 will be very crucial to put on a big score.