Zaheer Khan reveals England's concerns and India's positives ahead of Lord's Test

The first Test match between England and India ended in a draw with rain playing spoilsport on the fifth day. If not for Joe Root’s brilliant century in the third innings, India could have forced a result. But that was not to be, as the experts and fans missed what could have been a pulsating run-chase. India needed 157 on the last day with nine wickets remaining in the bank.

Now, with a draw, both England and India stand on Even Stevens heading into the second Test match at the Lord’s Cricket Stadium. Cricketer-turned-expert Zaheer Khan was asked to elaborate on which of the two teams had an advantage of having a draw. While Khan didn’t choose one team, he instead pointed out few weaknesses of England’s top-order batters -Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, and Zak Crawley.

In a video posted by Cricbuzz, Zaheer was seen answering a question about how the home team’s top three batters failed to get going in either of the innings and lacked a proper flow while bating. “There is a weakness in England’s top three batters Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, and Zak Crawley as they lack proper flow in their innings. The back lift is not working properly and the trio also doesn’t have a sound technique while facing the pacers and are not capable enough to score brisk runs.”

Zaheer Khan impressed by India playing four pacers

Virat Kohli made the bold decision of going in with four pacers at Trent Bridge. India played Ravindra Jadeja as a sole spinner and opted to with Shardul Thakur as the fourth bowling option in the playing XI. Zaheer was impressed by this, “India played four pacers and went with Thakur as the seam-bowling all-rounder and that was very impressive. Another positive for India was Jadeja scoring a fifty at a critical stage of the innings.”

The former pacer further concluded by saying that he was impressed by India’s openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, “The openers in the seam and swing conditions left the balls well and displayed patience. Unlike England’s top-order batters who put pressure on the middle-order batters, Rahul and Sharma played much better and displayed a sound technique. This is a huge positive and augurs well for India in the coming few Tests.”