After Lord’s defeat, Sanjay Manjrekar has some advice for India’s batting coach Bangar

Former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar has requested India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar to ask the batsmen to use the batting crease more in the remaining three Tests after the heavy defeat at Lord’s on Sunday, August 12. India failed to cross 150 in either of the two innings they batted in the game and lost the match to England by an innings and 159 runs. They now trail 0-2 in the five-match series.

India lost 20 wickets in just over 82 overs for a cumulative score of 237, giving the English seamers abundant space to dominate the game. While James Anderson took nine wickets in the game, his opening partner Stuart Broad took five wickets and centurion Chris Woakes took four wickets to floor the visitors without a minimum of resistance.

Manjrekar took to Twitter to express his viewpoints on India’s batting woes in this series (Virat Kohli’s side has been able to cross 200 only once in four innings so far). In a tweet, Manjrekar said there was no easy solution to India’s batting flaws and wisdom lied in controlling the controllables – like picking the right team and playing an extra batsman irrespective of the situation.

In another tweet, the former batsman said, “Sanjay Bangar must ask his batsmen to check out the space inside the batting crease and use it more, like Ashwin does. It will have surprise gifts for his batsmen.”

Ravichandran Ashwin, who went wicket-less at Lord’s, was the highest scorer for India in both innings – 29 and 33 not out, respectively. India’s top order has been disappointing in both Tests and playing different combinations hasn’t helped their cause either.

They had a 50-run opening partnership in the first Test between Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, but at Lord’s, the opening wicket fell without any run on the board in both innings. Captain Kohli, who had a good match in Birmingham with 200 runs in the game, also failed to come good in this game and managed just 40 in two outings.

Bangar himself was an opener for India in Tests and played a rock solid 68 off 236 balls at Leeds during the 2002 series which saw the Indian middle order flourishing and virtually winning the game for India. Can he instill some lesson about that game in today’s batsmen under his tutelage?

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