BATTING INTENT ON RISE

With the next-gen players coming in, there is a slow but steady change in the batting approach of the Indian team

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @Bengaluru

WHEN Sarfaraz Khan wanted to flay the second new ball through point minutes after New Zealand had taken it in the third innings, Rishabh Pant, the man at the other end, marched up to offer a few words of advice. Within the context of the situation, Pant, perhaps, did the right thing. The strip was a new ball one; there was always seam movement and the hosts only had 50 runs in the bank to play with it at the stage. However, pull the curtain back a little and it's fairly obvious that Sarfaraz's shot, in a microcosm, is the new Indian way. Keep attacking with the bat, set the tempo. There has never been a readily identifiable Indian DNA with the bat but this is probably the new regime's one big early change. It's why captain Rohit Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir have already used the word freedom multiple times within the batting framework of the Test team.

"When the guys are showing that kind of attitude on the field with the bat, it shows that the mindset is clear," Sharma said of India's response in the second innings. "The guys want to go out there and play with freedom and try and see how we can put the pressure back on the opposition.