Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan stressed the importance of aggression and belief, especially when facing challenging situations, as he feels Team India lacked these elements with the bat in the second Test against England which was played in Vizag.
The 2011 World Cup winner expressed concerns about India's batting performance during their 106-run run in the second Test to level the five-match Test series at 1-1.
Zaheer said that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill batted well. But he mentioned that the rest of the batting has been subpar compared to India's usual standards at home, especially given the nature of the playing surfaces.
Zaheer Khan said during a conversation on 'Match Centre Live': “If you are one down in the series, you need that aggression, fight and belief to make sure that it is 1-1 after the end of the game. And I think Rohit was able to bring out those individual performances from the players.”
He further explained, “There are a few concerns when you look at the team - batting is something that they will be talking about because under these conditions, on this sort of a surface, we have seen India do better.
You look at England's second innings, there is only one half-century and they still managed to get close to 300. That is what collective effort can do. We have seen two brilliant innings - Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, but with the bat, there is a lot of work to be done.”
Speaking about Team India’s bowling in Vizag, the former pacer noted: “On the bowling front as well, you had the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah. On this kind of surface, you feel that your spinners were at times under pressure, and because of that they needed the help from the batters.”
Zaheer signed off by saying, “So, to control all these factors - this is where the captain needs to come into play, and Rohit has been superb when it comes to all these factors and situations.”
(With ANI Inputs)
