'Lot of Work to be Done With the Bat Still': Zaheer Khan Points Out Room for Improvement After India's Series Levelling Win Over England

Team India levelled the ongoing five-match Test series against England with a 106-run win in the second Test in Vizag on Monday.

Despite the win that pulled India on par in the series after a defeat in the opening game of the series, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan opined that the men in blue have some work to be done in terms of their batting.

The Indian batting order managed to put up a total of 396 runs in the first innings thanks to opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s maiden double ton and added 255 runs in the second innings with Shubman Gill’s ton standing out for the home nation.

Khan said that skipper Rohit Sharma did well to bring the best out of the youngsters which put India in a strong position to take the second game.

“If you are one-down in the series, you need that aggression, fight and belief to make sure that it is 1-1 after the end of the game. And I think Rohit was able to bring out those individual performances from the players,” the pacer said.

However, Khan added that there are a few concerns that need to be addressed with the willow going forward in the series.

“There are a few concerns when you look at the team — batting is something that they will be talking about because under these conditions, on this sort of a surface, we have seen India do better,” he added.

England were bundled out for 253 runs in the first innings as lead seamer Jasprit Bumrah scalped 6 wickets before India wrapped up the game in the second innings by polishing off the English batting order for 292 runs in the second innings to seal a win by over a hundred runs.

Zak Crawley top scored with 73 runs for the tourists in the second innings, but Khan pointed out the collective effort from other English players that took visitors close to the 300-run mark.

“You look at England’s second innings, there is only one half-century and they still managed to get close to 300. That is what collective effort can do. We have seen two brilliant innings – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, but with the bat, there is a lot of work to be done,” Khan said.

Khan, a legendary pacer himself, heaped praise on the brilliant Bumrah, who proved to be the difference between the sides ultimately.

“On the bowling front as well, you had the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah. On this kind of surface, you feel that your spinners were at times under pressure, and because of that, they needed help from the batters. So, to control all these factors — this is where the captain needs to come into play, and Rohit has been superb when it comes to all these factors and situations,” he concluded.