Former Indian cricketer-turned-expert Ajay Jadeja said India’s current batting lineup isn’t in their best interest and they must get their batting combination in the correct order before the must-win fourth T20I of the five-match series against England starting Thursday (March 18).
India made a couple of changes to the batting line-up in the third T20I – brought back Rohit Sharma in place of Suryakumar Yadav, and then dropped in-form Ishan Kishan to No.3 while Virat Kohli came in at No. 4 with KL Rahul and the team’s vice-captain opened the innings against England.
Well, the decision didn’t work for Team India as all batsmen fell cheaply with Kohli single-handedly took the hosts to 157 on the board, but were not enough to win the game as England thrashed the Men in Blue by 8 wickets to win the game and took a 2-1 lead in the ongoing five-match T20I series.
Ahead of the fourth game, Jadeja said some Indian players are not playing in their ideal positions as he was particularly not impressed with Hardik Pandya’s batting position in the line-up, as the all-rounder batted at No. 7 and 8 so far in the three games against England.
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Jadeja told Cricbuzz: “I feel some players are not playing in their ideal positions. For example, I am a big fan of how Hardik Pandya plays his game. When he came out to bat, look at the England bowlers who had overs left. Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and an over or two of someone else.”
The former cricketer further explained, “There is no team, who have five frontline bowlers. You will always have one bowler who's slightly weaker than the others. India needs to understand which batsman will give them the maximum returns when they come up against a particular bowler. You know the pace at which Hardik Pandya bats when he’s having a good day.”
He signed off by saying, “You have to think whether you want to up the ante when your batsmen are facing Archer or Wood, or when someone like Jordan or Sam Curran is bowling. That’s why I feel India’s current batting lineup isn’t in their best interest.”
