IND Vs ENG, 2018: Sanjay Bangar Defends India's Sluggish Batting Display at Lord's

Team India batting coach Sanjay Bangar, on Monday (July 16), defended the Indian team’s poor batting show during the second One-day International against England at Lord’s.

While defeat is a part and parcel of the game, the Men in Blue are facing widespread criticism for the manner of defeat they suffered.

Chasing 323 runs in 50 allotted overs, India never quite tried to make a match out of it. Losing three wickets for 60 eventually hurt their chances early on. But even after Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli steadied the ship with an 80-run stand, the visitors rarely tried to play the big shots and remain in contention.

In fact, the chase was so weird that at one point in the game, the Lord’s crowd even booed Mahendra S Dhoni, who scored 37 off 59. India were eventually all out for a modest total of 236 in 50 overs.

India never looked at ease during the chase. Surprisingly, they struggled against England spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali. The duo combined for figures of three for 80 off 20 overs in decisive spells to choke India.

Well, such was the nature of the chase that even England star Joe Root admitted that it was a bit surprising.

“Yes (it was surprising), but ultimately it doesn’t really concern us. Always try and judge how we approach the game and how we go about things. We try to maintain a professional approach and be as ruthless as possible. We managed to see India through by bowling them out by the end of the game. So we are looking after our own game and putting ourselves in a strong position by the end of the game,” Root said after the game.

However, Bangar defended the team and also reiterated the defeat has not disheartened the players.

“The amount of cricket that we are playing. The results that we have got over the last 12 months or so, the team is pretty used to it. Whenever the team drops a game, we are generally used to it. That is something that we cannot control. But the guys are very very focussed,” Bangar said ahead of the third ODI.

Former cricketer Sanjay Bangar also defended the middle-order line-up which once again failed to put up a good display. At the same time, he gave credit to the English bowlers.

“See when a team loses four wickets, the lower-order at least in the One-Day format with the combination that we are playing. We do not really have the depth at number 8, 9 or 10. The batsmen at number six or seven could not play with freedom.  It was purely because we kept on losing wickets and the set batsmen could not really explode. But due credits to the English bowlers because in the middle-orders they did not allow us to score boundaries.  That probably was the reason why the run-rate kept on going up,” he concluded.