Sydney Test: Time for Pujara, Dhawan, Ashwin to deliver

The SCG may be perfect for the under-performing trio -- Pujara, Dhawan and Ashwin -- to regain their touch, feels Haresh Pandya.

The final Test in Sydney offers a good opportunity for three players who have failed to impress on the Australia series: Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Acclaimed for his technical excellence and considered by many to be the right batsman to step into Rahul Dravid's shoes -- on the basis of his dazzling scores against New Zealand, England, Australia and the West Indies on the batting-friendly Indian pitches -- Pujara's performance on India's last three overseas tours has been dismal.

He was off-colour in the two Tests in New Zealand, was reduced to a novice by James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the second half of the five-Test series in England and struggles for runs Down Under.

pujara has been getting good starts and gives the impression of being set to play a big innings. But he has been unable to convert his 20s and 30s into bigger scores. He either loses his wicket to exceptionally good deliveries or becomes a poor victim of questionable umpiring decisions.

His technique has also been exposed against moving, seaming deliveries on green and bouncy pitches. This weakness was undetected on the docile pitches in India where the ball can come neither fast nor swings prodigiously.

Pujara has been struggling, not just against the sharply moving ball, but also against the occasionally awkward lifting delivery, since the England tour. The sooner he fixes this problem, the better it would be for his career.

His falling for low scores seems to have dented his much talked about confidence, concentration and determination.

Pujara must make the most of the comparatively slower wicket at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which is traditionally spin-friendly. Luckily for him and the other Indian batsmen, the hostile Mitchell Johnson is not playing in Sydney.

Unlike Pujara, Shikar Dhawan's troubles are his own creation. Like Pujara, he has got good starts in the series and on several occasions appeared to be into the groove to play a long innings.

Dhawan's tendency to go for his shots has proved his undoing. He just does not have patience and seems to forget that a Test match is played over five days.

The rising ball may be his biggest challenge, but Dhawan loses his wicket to seemingly simple deliveries, for he can't check himself and his mercurial willow.

Dhawan needs to apply himself, show patience, concentration, and character. All he has to do is take a leaf out of his opening partner Murali Vijay's book. Vijay is all that Pujara and Dhawan are unfortunately not on this series -- perfect technique, solid temperament, fiery confidence and, as a result, full of runs.

Dhawan's one notable innings of 80-plus was not without blemish. He has to do something special in Sydney to justify his selection and also his standing as a batsman.

Ashwin may have been wrongly kept out of the playing XI in Adelaide, but has not done anything remarkable in the second and third Tests despite the fact that the Australians are vulnerable against quality and crafty off-spin bowling.

There can't be a better platform than the SCG for Ashwin to regain his touch and prove why he is rated India's No 1 spinner.

The Sydney game will also test Virat Kohli's captaincy.

In Adelaide, he captained India, and led brilliantly throughout while setting a personal example, because skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was unwell. So much has happened between Adelaide and Sydney. India has not only surrendered the rubber, Dhoni has bid farewell to Test cricket in the middle of a series.

The aggressive and combative Kohli may not appear to be under pressure to perform as a captain in Sydney, but must try to record a win.

Kohli unfortunately does not have the bowlers to bowl Australia out twice. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar uncertain for Sydney, and his other speedsters and spinners unpredictable, Kohli the skipper is in an unenviable position in Sydney.

The final Test holds great importance for Pujara, Dhawan and Ashwin. Good luck to them.