"Whenever it's your day, you need to make those starts count" - Aakash Chopra on Kohli and Pujara's failures in 5th IND vs ENG Test
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra believes the lack of runs from India's top and middle order was a key reasons for their loss against England at Edgbaston.
Although the visitors scored 416 runs in the first innings, it was largely due to Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja's centuries after they were reduced to 98/5. Even in the second innings, India were in a good position to post a target in excess of 450, having taken a lead of 132 runs.
However, they lost their last six wickets for just 55 runs and could only set up a target of 378 runs for England. The hosts chased it down with ease on the final day to secure a comprehensive seven-wicket win.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra spoke about experienced batters Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara failing to convert their starts into big scores. He said:
"If Virat Kohli does score big runs and big hundreds, Team India will be in trouble. Cheteshwar Pujara has made some important contributions but hasn't made a century."
Chopra added:
"Whenever it's your day, you need to make those starts count and convert them into big scores. There haven't been enough runs scored by India in this series or even in the previous one against South Africa."
Bairstow has scored more runs in the last 25 days than Kohli has in the last 18 months.
#ENGvIND https://t.co/RJ6QWAJFxL
India have not scored enough runs in the past several years: Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra also shed light on how the Edgbaston Test was just an extension of India's batters failing to score enough runs. He believes that apart from the opening partnerships between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul last summer in England, India have been unable to post huge totals consistently.
Chopra feels that the visitors needed to have batted for another session and taken the total further away from England at Edgbaston. Had they done so, they could have perhaps made use of the second new ball and triggered a batting collapse.
Aakash Chopra stated:
"The batters haven't scored enough runs in the past two and half years. Of course Rohit and Rahul did score runs in England last year, but the runs have been very sporadic."
He added:
"You could have batted 1-2 more sessions and given a target of 475-500 and it might not have been chased down. If it becomes 109/3 from 107/0, one wicket here and with the second new ball due, things change. The sad reality is India have not scored enough runs in past several series."
The win at Edgbaston was England's fourth straight Test victory this summer, with their batting clicking in all those matches. India, meanwhile, were left with plenty of questions across both their batting and bowling departments and few answers.