England vs India: Sunil Gavaskar slams Indian team for being over-dependent on Virat Kohli

The dismal batting performance by the Indians in the second innings of the fourth Test match was expected to face criticism and the legendary Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the team for being too dependent on skipper Virat Kohli.

In a discussion, as quoted by The Indian Express, Gavaskar said, “When you go in with five batsmen then you are bound to be in such a situation where you rely so much only on one player, Virat Kohli to get you the big hundreds.”

“He can’t do it every time, he’s human. To expect that the lower order (to save India after the top-order collapse) after that Kohli-Rahane partnership was broken, to get even another 60-70 runs was too much,” he added.

Having set a target of 245 runs to chase down for levelling the series, India collapsed for just 184 runs. The wrecker-in-chief was Moeen Ali, who followed up his five-wicket haul in the first innings with four wickets. His off-spin completely dismantled the Indian batting as after a brief resistance by Kohli and deputy Ajinkya Rahane, it was just a matter of time that England ended up walking away with a win.

After the openers were sent back by Stuart Broad and James Anderson, Kohli and Rahane resurrected the Indian innings with a 101-run stand but the rest of the batting fell like a pack of cards after they were dismissed-handing England a win by 60 runs and a 3-1 unassailable lead in the series.

“Here I think their (the Indian openers) deficiencies were shown. Earlier (at Edgbaston and Lord’s) I think the ball was moving around quite a bit so most opening batsmen would have struggled. But here in both these innings, I don’t think that was the case,” opined Gavaskar.

He also lashed out at Hardik Pandya for putting up an average show in the fourth Test match. The 24-year old scored four runs in the entire match, picking up just one wicket.

“You want to call Hardik Pandya an all-rounder? Whoever wants to call Pandya an all-rounder, may call! But I don’t think so,” said Gavaskar.

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