MS Dhoni blames lean patch of top order batsmen for Old Trafford embarrassment

The scoreboard tells the story of the match: Moments after the beginning of India’s first innings at Old Trafford

Indian cricket team reached a new low after the talented bunch of batsmen flopped magnificently to gift England a 2-1 lead in the series at Old Trafford. India lost 9 wickets in the final session of day 3 to go down by an innings and 54 runs. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni pointed fingers at his top order that failed to produce runs for the second time in the match.

"I think even in the first innings we weren’t up t the mark in the batting department. I feel so far in the series our batting had not really clicked. Our batting needs to improve. There has been a lot of talk about our bowling but it`s our batting that has to improve,” commented the wicket-keeper batsman after India surrendered the match without a fight.

No real problems in pitch

Despite their batsmen falling like nine pins against the home team’s bowling attack, Dhoni, who scored a valuable 71 in the first innings, said that there was no demons in the pitch.

"The first hour of this Test match was crucial. We all know it has slightly more bounce, this wicket. But after that it got much better to bat on and there was something for the fast bowlers,” said the 33-year-old.

India lost 4 wickets inside 6 overs on the first day morning as they struggled to control the swing and bounce.

"Once you see off the first 20-25 overs, when the ball is hard and new, it gets relatively better for the batsmen to bat. You just have to pull the bowler towards you rather than going outside off and looking for the big shot.

"If you can look to push them to bowl to you actually you can control the swing much better and you can play your strokes. That is something to an extent we lacked. Hopefully we will learn from it out and move into the next one which I feel will be very important to us," the captain pointed out to the worrying mode of dismissals.

Most of the batsmen went after the balls that posed no threat to the wickets, resulting in a combined batting collapse that contined till the end of the second innings.

"We have played with a fifth bowler in the series and that fifth bowler has often scored runs. If you look at our batting, our Nos 7,8,9 have all scored while the top-order has not scored runs. Our lower-order has camouflaged the failure of our top-order," he further added.

Defends Pujara and Kohli

Despite putting the blame on his batsmen for the embarssing defeat, Dhoni refused to single out the under performing stars in Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara as the prime factors of this humiliation and backed them to come good.

"Consistently we are exposing Pujara in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th over and he might feel that he is better off opening the batting. Our openers haven`t given us good enough start and that has put a lot of pressure on Pujara coming in at No 3, who has never felt settled.

"Virat has had a lovely spell for two and half years and this is something that will happen in international cricket. But I am not really worried as he is middling the ball well," said the skipper.

The Ranchi-born expressed hope that his coach Duncan Fletcher will be able to get his men back to their run scoring ways.

“He (Fletcher) has been helping Virat a lot and not only Virat, he has also been helping other batsmen".

Praise for Varun Aaron

The right hander had some words of praise for the comeback pacer Varun Aaron, who ended with 3/97. He hurried onto the batsmen and forced them into errors. His dismissal of Moeen Ali in the first innings was top class.

On Day 3, the Jharkhand seamer’s bouncer sneaked into the helmet of Broad forcing him to walk off. Notably, England never missed the absent Stuart Broad when they bundled out India for 161 in the second innings.

The pacer’s inclusion is giving the team an option to "attack batsmen with bouncers and experiment with field settings," he felt.

The final Test match of the series begins on August 15 at The Oval.