Mohammad Azharuddin lashes out at the Indian support staff after Southampton defeat

India, after promising in the ongoing Test series against England, couldn’t show consistency and eventually lost the five-match series 1-3. There wasn’t any dearth of individual brilliance on their part, but the Brits had answers to every question hurled at them. Even in the last match in Southampton, the visitors dominated for the chunk of the match, only to stumble at the finishing line.

Their bowlers wrapped England’s innings up pretty comfortably on both the instances, however, the batsmen couldn’t quite support them appropriately and hence, India lost the match at The Ageas Bowl by 60 runs. In the meantime, Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian captain, questioned the support staff’s role after India’s batsmen flattered to deceive most of the times.

“We lost the series because of poor batting and our batsmen were committing the same mistakes throughout. What is our coaching staff doing?” Azharuddin was quoted as saying in The Times of India (TOI).

We didn’t play the moving ball well

Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, has notched 544 runs thus far in the series with a couple of centuries and three half-centuries. Unfortunately, the next highest scorer for the visiting team has been Cheteshwar Pujara with 241 runs from three encounters. Azharuddin also mentioned that India can’t afford to solely depend on Kohli, Moreover, he said that it was India’s best opportunity to emerge triumphant.

“Technically, our batsmen were found wanting. We didn’t play the moving ball well. We can’t depend only on Virat Kohli. Openers like Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul too didn’t get runs. The middle-order was left with too much to do. We should have taken at least a 100-run lead after Cheteshwar Pujara’s hundred (in the fourth Test),” he remarked.

“We could have done better. This was our best chance to win the series because we had the best bowling attack and in every game, they got those 20 wickets and gave our team a chance to throttle the opposition,” the 55-year-old added.

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