5 things that will help India on away tours

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With the grand Indian home season coming to an end with the Sri Lanka series, there has been a lot of talk about preparing pitches that will suit South African conditions. After being dominant in all the test series at home so far, Kohli and Co. will face the real test away from home. South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand are the nations that India will tour in the course of the next 18 months, after the completion of the ongoing Sri Lanka series.

Last time around, Under Dhoni's captaincy, India fought well in all the matches except for the last 3 matches in England. But this Indian team have the potential to be more than just competitive in foreign conditions. However, they need to make sure they get these 5 things right in order to stand a chance to win or even draw the away legs.

1. Good opening partnerships

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KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Shikar Dhawan are the three openers that India have at their disposal right now. It was very surprising to see Dhawan being given the nod ahead of Vijay in the Sri Lanka series.

While Dhawan is a match winner on his day, he has too many technical weaknesses that bowlers can work on. When it comes to playing quality fast bowling in lively tracks, your technique and mental toughness becomes more important than your strike rate and the ability to take the game away from the bowling team.

It's about grinding it out for a long period and earning your runs. In that aspect, quite clearly Vijay and Rahul are the go-to men. It's a blessing in disguise that Dhawan opted out of the next 2 matches. Vijay definitely needs a bulk of runs under his belt to get his mojo back.

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