England's batting line-up is heavily dependent on captain Joe Root, who once again came to the rescue and scored a hundred in the second Test against India. Root remained not out on 180 as England got bowled out on 391 in the first innings at Lord's.
Apart from Root's hundred, only Jonny Bairstow scored a half-century (57) and Rory Burns was dismissed on 49 runs. They had lost their first two wickets on 23 runs and then a couple of big partnerships put them back in the game.
Former India batsman Virender Sehwag feels England's batsmen need to step up and they shouldn't leave everything on Root all the time. "When your openers do not give you a good start, that is when you come down to the bottom. The chances of winning also takes a hit because if you have a good partnership – say of 50-100 runs, it becomes easier for the middle order.
"Eight times their openers have gotten out for a duck, which is a big number. When the openers get out early, you are left with pressure to deal with," he said on the Sony Sports Network.
Sehwag recalled the tour of England in 2002 when he first opened in Test cricket for India. He revealed his former teammate Rahul Dravid, who batted at number 3 at that time, used to already pad up with few hopes of Sehwag batting for too long.
However, the then India opener had succeeded to score 84 at Lord's and 106 at Trent Bridge. "I remember when I opened for India in Tests for the first time, I was getting ready to go out and saw that Rahul Dravid is already padded up and getting ready for his turn. So, I told him 'I'm yet to go out'. He told me 'I know that you won't give me the time to even put my pads on'.
"But after the first match, he probably realized that it's not like that. I will give him chances. I scored 84 and then when I hit a century, he was pretty sure. Then he always used to put his pads on after me," Sehwag said.
