Veteran Pakistan batsman Salman Butt believes that India’s struggling trio of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Rishabh Pant does not have a plan B in their batting after they yet again failed to make an impact with the bat in the ongoing fourth Test against England at The Oval.
Pant (9) was dismissed after attempting a dreadful shot off Chris Woakes, Pujara (4), and Rahane (14) were dismissed in familiar fashion, nicking deliveries outside off-stump, on day 1 of the ongoing fourth Test against England on Thursday (September 2) at The Oval.
India’s batting line-up yet again failed to live up to the expectations as the tourists managed to post 191 runs in the first innings against England, thanks to fifties from Virat Kohli and Shardul Thakur.
Butt said on his YouTube channel, “Virat Kohli is backing the team but the team is not responding to it in the manner that they should. Kohli and the team are definitely in a spot of bother. He himself is not scoring runs and the middle-order is struggling as well. India needs to definitely ponder upon this.”
He added: “The mode of dismissals of (Ajinkya) Rahane, (Cheteshwar) Pujara, and (Rishabh) Pant are pretty similar. They just don’t seem to have a Plan B in their batting. When you play such a long series and are not able to score in a particular way, you have to adapt and look for other options.”
Butt concluded, “They either need to go on the backfoot or move forward and play on the front foot. But all three are playing in between - neither are they going fully forward and moving backwards. When you are unsure of your footwork and the ball is doing so much, you are bound to get into trouble.”
