'India's lower order batters will make a difference in the series' - Andrew McDonald on importance of tailender's contribution in ongoing series

In what was a complete domination from the start for team India in the first Test, the hosts hammered Australia in just three days. The Indian spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, left Australian batters totally clueless. While Jadeja took his 5-wicket haul in the first innings, Ashwin accomplished his fifer in the second innings to wrap things up.

In the first Test, Rohit Sharma became the first and only centurion of the game, thanks to his outstanding 120-run knock on a difficult surface. In order to ensure that India had a solid lead, Jadeja and Axar Patel both struck crucial half-centuries as well.

India's lower order contributed a major chunk of the host's first innings total. India got bowled out for 400, out of which almost half the runs were contributed by the batters batting at No. 7 or lower. This stats shows how much Indian lower batters have contributed to their side and is much more than what Australian lower order contributed to their side's total.

'Lower-order batting is also going to be a differentiator in this series' - Andrew McDonald

Andrew McDonald, the Australian head coach, spoke to SEN Radio about India's lower order batting. McDonald said, "Their (India's) lower-order batting is also going to be a differentiator in this series in (Ravindra) Jadeja, (Axar) Patel and (Ravichandran) Ashwin, they've got a really strong lower-order and we're going to be challenged by that."

Furthermore, he shed light on how the Australian lower order's contribution has been less. "They're no doubt going to have more runs available to their lower order than ours, so we've got to try to work out how to break even in that sense," the 41-year-old concluded.

India and Australia are set to clash again on February 17, in the second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in New Delhi. There is a lot of talk going around on how Australia would line-up for this game and there are rumours that the team management might be thinking of giving the in-form Travis Head, another opportunity in the sub-continent at the expense of David Warner.

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