It's been a difficult year for India's batsmen in Test cricket. Apart from the two games v WI in Rajkot and Hyderabad in October, all their other 10 Tests have been in alien lands, on pitches, in conditions and against attacks that have put them through a seriously searching examination.

Just as India's faster bowlers have gorged themselves on the opposition batting, their batsmen have fallen prey to such skillful practitioners as Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Lungi Ngidi in SA, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Sam Curran and Moeen Ali in England, and to Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon here in Australia.