New captain, old headache

India's top half averaged 52.57 per wicket to Australia's 51.45 this series. Four Indian batsmen scored at least one century to Australia's three. M Vijay left alone 234 balls, which is better than the next two put together: 230, between Steven Smith and Chris Rogers. No Indian batsmen other than Virat Kohli had played a Test in Australia before the series began. The Australian batsmen have been playing here all their lives. By all accounts India batsmen matched Australia in the batting department.

Yet it all came down to India's batting collapses and a bad session each in every Test. In Adelaide and Brisbane the bad sessions were horrible. In Melbourne and Sydney India managed to arrest those bad sessions. They lost Adelaide and Brisbane, and drew Melbourne and Sydney. To say that those sessions was where the Tests were lost or saved would a be a tad harsh on the batsmen. It is a fair criticism that India should have batted Australia out in Brisbane and Melbourne after the starts they got, but sometimes the batting can do with some support. Australia got that support, India didn't.

It can be argued that India were hurt more by their inept bowling on second day in Adelaide than the collapse on the final day. Same with letting Mitchell Johnson score all those runs before the batting came undone on the final day in Brisbane. Had India lost Melbourne it would be down in same measure to the poor bowling against Brad Haddin as the folding up that was avoided on the final evening. In Sydney, India should never have had to bat out 90 overs; it was only thanks to 251 conceded on the fourth day.

The Indian hierarchy tried to talk up the bowlers before the start of the series, defended them through it, but the end of it they knew they had been let down again. Kohli, who has promised aggressiveness taking over as captain from the much-maligned MS Dhoni, has begun to realise the problems Dhoni faced.

"The reason we have done well at home is we have taken 20 wickets," Kohli said. "The spinners have bowled really well. The fast bowlers know how to bowl in home conditions with reverse-swing. They have a fair idea of the areas they have to bowl in. But when we come out, they get too excited with the bounce. Actually we need to figure out which are the best areas to bowl to each batsman and work on those areas.

"You run up to bowl and you can pitch six balls on the same spot. Only then can you set the right fields as the captain to set up a batsman and get him out. The consistency bit is something we really need to work on."

Lack of experience cannot be an excuse. Kohli saw Josh Hazlewood make his debut and know right away how to take Test wicket. "Certainly a lot to learn from the Australian bowlers," Kohli said. "Especially someone like Josh Hazlewood who is playing his first few matches. He put the ball in the right spots in all three matches. That's something we need to learn big time if we want to win Test matches. Eventually you have to take 20 wickets to win a Test match. That's how simple and plain it is."

If Hazlewood knows what to do, why can't India's bowlers maintain any sort of pressure? Is it a lack of skills, fitness, or poor plans? Kohli's answer was instructive. Possibly he hasn't seen the same amount of effort in the bowlers' later spells. "It might be a mixture of a lot of things," Kohli said. "The skill is there. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be playing for India. That's a given. You need composure and character to go out there and say, 'I'm tired, but I need to take two wickets for my team, so I need to bowl at the same pace as my first spell.'

"That's where character counts. When you're tired and you're down and your team expects you to step up. That's something we've not been able to do in the last couple of years. At Lord's Ishant did it for us. We need guys stepping up with more performances like that to win Test matches. Those crucial moments after tea, at the end of a day's play, we need to strike and we haven't been able to. It's to do with wanting to bowl that second and third spell for the team, and that's something we need to consistently work on, tell the guys to step up and bowl their hearts out for the team eventually."

With what Kohli says, though, you get the impression he is less likely to change his captaincy style to suit ordinary bowling - something Dhoni did - than trying to force the attitude of the bowlers towards Test bowling. There are encouraging signs in what Kohli says.

"The main criteria now would be to scout guys who we feel - along with these fast bowlers - have the potential to play in the future, and groom them and nurture them and monitor their fitness, their consistency and their skills. That's how we want to develop our Test team, and that's something we really want to do going ahead in the future."

Now begins the tussle. How long before the India bowlers break another captain down? Or will this captain's ambition be able to bring about a paradigm shift?