Indian batsmen lacking in solid defence: Jones

Former Australian batsman Dean Jones says the Indian batsmen and bowlers need to have a solid defensive plan to succeed abroad.

When asked by journalists here yesterday as to what caused the Indians to fail in the first two Tests, Jones said: "When a batsman bats for a substantial period of time, he is defending 50 percent of the deliveries. That means the defence has to be solid."

Jones, who scored an epic 200 in the Tied Test at Chennai in 1986, believes the Indian batsmen don't have solid defence and have struggled to deal with good deliveries: "Even a perfect technician like Rahul Dravid has been bowled though the gate and VVS Laxman is struggling to defend the moving ball outside off stump." u00a0

Deano, as he is known to the Australian public, went on to say that Indian bowlers need to bowl with lot more accuracy when the ball stops moving. "Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan, to an extent, look great when the ball is new, but they need to be able to hold the Australians once the ball is old. u00a0The way to hold the opposition is to be accurate with impeccable line and length."u00a0

The reason the Australians have kept the pressure on the Indians is because they can bowl tight lines with the old ball and contain the Indian batting," he felt.u00a0Despite failures, Jones thought the Indian bowling was heading in the right direction. "India have realised that they need bowlers with pace and with Yadav and Sharma, they are heading in correct direction," the batting stalwartu00a0said.

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