India missed a regular No.6: Mohinder Amarnath

The fate of India’s overseas Test series against England has already been sealed as the home team took an unassailable lead in the series with their 60-run victory at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton. They have nothing, but pride to play for in the final encounter at Kennington Oval in London. While the Indian bowlers have done a reasonable job, the batters haven’t quite been able to support them.

The visiting team has had their fair share of chances, but they couldn’t latch on to them. In the meantime, Mohinder Amarnath, the former Indian cricketer believes that India haven’t had a proper batsman at number six, someone after the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya have mostly batted at the position, however, haven’t been able to make much impact.

It was the batting that let India down

“It wasn’t like India did not have opportunities. The bowlers did a fantastic job, especially the pacers who bowled their hearts out. At the end of the day, it was the Indian batting that was not up to scratch. Also, we missed a regular No.6.

You cannot go in with five batsmen and an all-rounder, especially in England. They could be very handy in the subcontinent, but overseas they get exposed,” Amarnath mentioned in his column for The Times of India (TOI).

Virat Kohli has scored two masterful centuries along with three fifties. Apart from him, only Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have chipped in with a couple of impressive knocks. Unfortunately, the rest of the batting has been shambolic, to say the least. The member of the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian squad also told that the Indian batsmen don’t seem to be at their best under seaming conditions.

“It was the batting that let India down, and what this showed was that they are not great players of the moving ball. Apart from Virat, and, of course, (Ajinkya) Rahane and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, none of the others looked comfortable even though some of them did get runs,” he added.

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