Former captain of Pakistan Ramiz Raja believes that despite the current situation, India still has a chance against Australia in the World Test Championship final at the Kennington Oval in London. However, he suggests that India needs to adopt better tactics in the second innings and focus on building partnerships to narrow the gap with Australia's total score. Raja, aged 60, also pointed out two crucial observations from the first innings of the Test match. Firstly, Travis Head is vulnerable to short balls, and secondly, Steve Smith is not fond of driving shots. Raja suggests that India can use these findings to their advantage moving forward.



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“What India need to do going ahead is to have better tactics. You have already seen that Travis Head struggles with the short ball and Steve Smith doesn't drive a lot. So pressure needs to be created. Can't give away easy singles to Australia. The bowling combinations need to be better and keep trying. India need to fight till the end because in a Test match, anything can happen,” Raja said on his YouTube channel.


"We have seen in the past that teams who have 450 scored runs have lost a Test match. So there is a chance of a comeback but you need to work hard throughout. The Indian players have to keep believing that they will just not play for a draw but still go for a win. India need partnerships but right now because of the wonderful batting by Australia and a better bowling performance than India, after the end of the second day's play, they find themselves in the dominant position,” he further added.


At the end of the second day's play, India stands at 151 for 5, trailing Australia by a margin of 318 runs. The primary objective for India now is to prevent the follow-on, and only then can they entertain hopes of winning the WTC final by relying on a potential collapse in Australia's second innings.