England's middle-order needs looking at: Nasser Hussain
Following England's defeat in the fourth T20I, Nasser Hussain believes the visitors need to reshuffle their middle-order. The former skipper pointed out that having three left-handers in the middle allowed Indian seamers to use off-cutters, which became difficult for the English batsmen to get hold of.
England were well in the chase after a quickfire 65-run partnership between Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow. However, Shardul Thakur's double-wicket over tilted the scales in India's favor. Both of Thakur's wickets came through off-cutters, with Stokes and Eoin Morgan getting caught in the deep.
Speaking after the game on Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain indicated that England need to change the batting order of their three left-handers - Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, and Sam Curran.
"That middle-order needs looking at. Three left-handers going in one after the other, up against a bowler [Thakur], who finds bowling off-cutters to left-handers very easy. Malan at the top, using up deliveries, left the left-handers in the middle-order with a lot to do against a good death bowler. England's three left-handers, coming in one after the other, just gave the momentum to India," Hussain said.
Hussain added that once right-handers like Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer came to the crease, Shardul Thakur had to change his plans.
"When the two right-handed lower-order batsmen, [Jofra] Archer and [Chris] Jordan, got in, Thakur couldn't go to his off-cutter, he had to try something different, and that threw him a little bit," Hussain added.
Michael Atherton weighs in on England's problems
Michael Atherton agreed with Nasser Hussain's assessment and said that almost every right-arm fast bowler has an off-cutter in his arsenal. Such deliveries are difficult to hit for the left-handers, especially if the pitch is holding up a bit.
"It was a point we made after the second game which India won; what is your obvious, bog-standard slower ball to bowl at them for your right-arm bowler? It's your off-cutter, and, if the pitch is holding, it is mighty effective," Atherton said.
However, Atherton added that it won't be an easy problem for England to solve.
"One of the problems is that you've got the captain [Morgan] who, clearly, will play, Stokes, who is a bowler and Curran, a bowler. So it's not quite so straightforward as 'get rid of one and bring a right-hander in. It's not a straightforward conundrum to solve for England, but, I agree. I thought England's chase showed both strengths and weaknesses," Atherton added.
With everything to play for in the final game, it remains to be seen whether the visitors will look to reshuffle their batting order in the series decider on Saturday.