Three years after a painful exit from the World Cup, India return to Old Trafford with same set of batting worries in deciding ODI vs England
Stung by England's raging comeback at Lord's, India return to Old Trafford in Manchester for the blockbuster decider of the ODI series on Sunday. For India, this is a venue which holds painful memories of their 2019 World Cup semifinal defeat to New Zealand in their previous outing here.
Much water has flowed under the bridge since that 18-run loss to the Kiwis. The captaincy baton has been passed on to Rohit Sharma, with Virat Kohli, who was then ruling the batting charts, now in such a bad slump that his place in the team itself is under the scanner.
The coach was then the flamboyant Ravi Shastri, a position now taken up by batting legend Rahul Dravid, who is understated in comparison. July 10, 2019 was also the last time MS Dhoni, who scored 50 off 72 balls in that game before he was run out by Martin Guptill, played for India.
It was also a match which saw allrounder Ravindra Jadeja respond to commentator Sanjay Manjrekar's jibe of him being a "bits and pieces player" with a magnificent 59-ball 77 that almost took India home. Since then, Jadeja has rapidly proved his batting credentials, though his bowling form is a bit of a concern.
One weakness that India showed in that game, though, remains three years down the line - the inability to chase down a comparatively low target after suffering a top-order collapse. On that occasion, India lost their top three - KL Rahul, Rohit and Kohli for one each - to be reduced to 5/3 by the fourth over. Though they fought back well through a 116-run seventh-wicket stand between Jadeja and Dhoni, India fell well short of New Zealand's 221.
Similarly, in their last game in the ongoing series at Lord's, India were not able to recover after slipping to 31/4 in the 12th over, and eventually were shot out for 146 in 38.5 overs. India lost their last four wickets for six runs in 24 balls.
In comparison, at Nos. 7 & 8, Moeen and David Willey add to England's batting muscle. Willey, a decent allrounder, bats at No. 4 for Yorkshire.
Post the thrashing, Rohit recognized this malaise, saying, "This is also a challenge for us. Whenever we lose five-six early wickets we have to learn how our lower order too can make runs. For quite a long time, this has been ailing the team. We need to focus a bit more on this, on how to bring more balance and improve our batting.
"The game is evolving, batsmanship is evolving. As a team, we need to evolve as well. We need to change our mindset, try to be extra positive and take the game on."
