India vs England | Sanjay Bangar believes losing wickets induced MS Dhoni's slow innings
BCCI
Indian Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar has stated that the continuous loss of wickets restricted MS Dhoni from playing freely in the second ODI against England. Apart from Sanjay Bangar, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and bowler Yuzvendra Chahal have also come forward to defend former Indian skipper.
After Indian players Virat Kohli and Yuzvendra Chahal, Indian Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar has also backed up Dhoni, as he played
âWith the combination we are playing, we do not have the depth at numbers 8, 9 or 10 (the lower order), and when you lose couple of wickets, it becomes really difficult to bat with that sort of freedom. Due credit to the England bowlers, they didn't allow us to score any boundaries in that period and that was the reason the run rate kept climbing up,â Bangar said, reported PTI.
âHe was just hoping someone would bat with him and we were just hoping that he could bat till the 40th over and take the bowlers on. But, every time he looked to do that, we lost wickets-
According to Bangar, Indian team's middle order is still a work in progress. He added that top orderâs performance reduces the opportunity for the middle order to score handsomely.
âThe way our top order is batting, our middle order hasn't got the opportunities as the top order is doing the bulk of scoring. At times, they straightaway walk into game situation. Mind you, not all of them are playing all the formats of the game so you have to give some
The series has been leveled between the two teams as they both have one win each. However, KL Rahul platonic form has led to think about changing the middle order of the squad.
âObviously, the plan was to have a left-hander batting in the middle-order. That is the reason why Suresh (Raina) was picked ahead of Dinesh (Karthik). We did change a bit in the T20 format, where KL batted at three and Virat batted at four. Looking at this series, and the performances that Virat has got at three, especially in the last series, he scored three hundreds versus South Africa in five games,â he said.
âLots of spots are open. The good thing is that the bench strength that we have Rayudu, Manish Pandey and Ajinkya Rahane. There are enough spots for each and every eventuality that we might face leading up to the World Cup,â Bangar added.
One more thing elemental is the availability of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But for playing in the squad, the bowler will have to go through a fitness test.
âHe's a quality bowler. We've obviously been missing our two frontline bowlers in the ODI format. Also provides
