Nagpur Test, Day 2, Tea
Friday, February 22, 2002

Slow and steady progress for India. I think the captain would have been pleased that the batsmen have laid a firm foundation for the innings. Deep Dasgupta, who came into the team as a wicketkeeper, has shown remarkable consistency at the international level, especially against good sides like South Africa and England. He didn't make too many today, but he has set things up nicely for the batsmen down the order. It's a revelation to see someone who hasn't really excelled as a batsman at the first-class level perform so effectively at the highest level.

Das has to set his sights on a big hundred now. His progress through the innings has been erratic though. These days, you get the feeling that he doesn't try to build up his innings, gauge the bowling till he's set and then play his shots. Here, he was looking to attack at the start, and then he went into a shell. At the moment, there's no flow to his batting – it's very much stop-start.

One of the things one noticed this morning was an over-reliance on Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. It took India 40 minutes to pick up the ninth wicket yet there were no bowling changes. Srinath is a bowler who is not really ruthless enough against the tailenders. He used the short ball very sparingly though whenever he did, he had the batsmen in a lot of trouble. Against the tail, you need to be more aggressive. You have to attack them with yorkers and bouncers to the ribs and I think Srinath doesn't do that enough. One gets the feeling that he himself won't be happy with his batting rhythm at the moment.

Zimbabwe's bowlers have done the best they could. The topsoil is coming off the pitch a little but there are no danger signals for India. It's just that strokeplay won't be easy. The left-arm spinner, Ray Price, has just made things a little difficult for India. The opposition is slowly starting to realise that if you keep it slow bowling left-arm spin to the Indians – and pretty soon I'm sure we'll see an over-the-wicket line – the batsmen tend to lose their rhythm.

There will be times when you have to take charge on such a slow pitch. There are three batsmen in this Indian line-up who are unlikely to take too many risks. Rahul Dravid is coming back from injury and also batting at number three after a while. He will be looking for a big score. Sourav Ganguly is woefully out of form and he too won't take many chances. VVS Laxman is also likely to eschew the adventurous approach when he comes in. How that affects the run rate will be a slight worry as this innings progresses.

Sanjay Manjrekar, stalwart of the Indian batting in the early `90s, was talking to Dileep Premachandran.

More Sanjay Manjrekar
Day 2, Tea: 'India take the tortoise route'

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