With Kohli and Rohit misfiring, the pressure has mounted on opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and India's middle order to put the kind of scores on the board their bowlers can defend.
India's batting is a major concern with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli struggling for runs ahead of the tour of Australia.
Musheer Khan stroked a fluent 181 from 373 balls, while Navdeep Saini claimed 2/36 to give India B the upperhand on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy match.
When you are defending to save a game, a loose delivery comes along and you suddenly opt to play an attacking shot, you are unlikely to hit as well as if you were playing your naturally aggressive game all along. First Pant, then Jaiswal, found that out the costly way, observes Prem Panicker.
For India, the biggest disappointment was the poor showing of their senior most players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin.
How India's players fared in the Bangladesh Test series.
Images from Day 5 in the fourth Test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday.
Root rescues England with controlled century in India
India's 40-4 (win-loss) home record in the last decade is awe-inducing but there is an ever-little crack, which is getting more pronounced in the past three years, particularly in the case of star batter Virat Kohli.
The biggest positives with the bat in Perth were Virat Kohli regaining his rhythm and Jaiswal's coming of age hundred in his debut Test in Australia. Both will look to build on those significant gains in Adelaide.
Washington lifted the gloom with a couple of unplayable deliveries that castled Ravindra and Tom Blundell (3) in a 10-minute spell before tea.
The former South African quick explained the pre-set plan against Head, though it eventually fell flat on its back.
Among other developments, middle order batter Shreyas Iyer will miss the next three Tests due to injury.
K L Rahul or Abhimanyu Easwaran will open the batting for India if captain Rohit Sharma is not available for the first Test against Australia in Perth, said head coach Gautam Gambhir.
'Virat and Rohit not playing (Duleep Trophy) was not good for Indian cricket, nor was it good for the two players. Had they played the Duleep Trophy and had some time in the red-ball cricket, things would have been different.'
Premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah was on Friday named vice-captain of India for the upcoming three-match home Test series against New Zealand, strongly indicating his possible elevation to the leadership role when the team travels to Australia from next month.
While the pace department needs some urgent solutions, the spin has a slightly different landscape.
India spared Bangladesh the ignominy of a follow-on but grabbed an overall lead of 308 with seven wickets in hands to seize control of the opening Test in Chennai on Friday.
The first Test, beginning in Chennai on Thursday, is expected to be played on the red-soil trampoline which often offers good purchase to pacers, but the black-soil composition is more likely to assist the spinners.
On a frenetic day four, Rohit Sharma's men quickly bowled out Bangladesh and then unleashed batting mayhem at the Green Park Stadium scoring at a rate unprecedented in Test cricket.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan on Sunday praised Akash Deep for making an immediate impact on his Test debut, with the right-arm seamer producing a three-wicket burst on the first day morning of the ongoing fourth Test against England in Ranchi.
Akash ran riot in the opening session of Day 1 by removing England's top order to put India in a strong position early in the game.
The presence of a host of experienced batters and bowlers, Latham said, makes India a formidable opponent.
A spectacular seven-wicket haul by Mitchell Santner helped New Zealand dismiss India for 156 before the tourists reached 198-5 at stumps on day two of the second test in Pune on Friday to tighten their grip on the three-match series.
New Zealand beat India by 25 runs in Mumbai to complete an unprecedented 3-0 series sweep in India.
Since making his debut in 2017, the highly rated Kuldeep Yadav has featured in just 13 Tests in seven years.
Gurnoor Brar has been drafted in specifically to get some simulation for the high-arm action of Bangladesh pacer Nahid Rana
Images from Day 2 of the 3rd Test played between India and New Zealand, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar fetched a winning bid of Rs 10.75 crore from Royal Challengers Bengaluru on a largely predictable second day of the mega auction, in Jeddah on Monday.
The complete list of players sold in the IPL 2025 Auction in Jeddah.
India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was ruled out of the upcoming Duleep Trophy because of illness.
Suryakumar Yadav will miss the first round match after suffering a a sprain to his right thumb.
This crushing defeat is a major wake-up call for Team India. They now face the real possibility of losing a home series for the first time in over a decade, warns Harish Kotian.
It was a stunning defeat for India, who were dismantled by eight wickets in seamer-friendly conditions in the opening match at Bengaluru, as they suffered their first series loss on home soil since falling to England in 2012.
Images from Day 2 of the second Test between India and New Zealand at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Friday.
A turner in Pune exposed the soft underbelly of Indian batters' technique against slow bowling but as per the current team's philosophy, it has decided to take the bull by its horns by asking for a turner where the ball might turn at right angles from first hour.
Rohit and the team management will also have to keep some of the young talents like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel wrapped in cotton wool after experiencing some early success in top-flight cricket.
IMAGES from the Day 1 of the third Test played between India and New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday
Washington Sundar justified his selection with a career-best 7/59 to bowl out New Zealand for 259 on Day 1 of the second Test in Pune.
In the absence of national regulars, the focus will shift on the likes of Rinku, who was surprisingly not picked for the first round despite having an impressive first-class record.
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