I must admit today's defeat has got me to look at the troubles in new light. So far I was firmly of the opinion that Dhawan's poor form has been the key reason for our troubles. However today and against England, Dhawan was not to blame. He stuck it out in the middle for long periods and in both the matches the team was in a good position when Dhawan got out. Okay granted the team was not in a good position to chase down the giant total, but the team was still 170 odd, and thats not a bad haul for an opener, to last till the team total is 172.
The problem lies in the middle order. Once Kohli goes, the team has absolutely no backbone. The end push just hasnt come. Jadeja has failed with the bat, as he has with the ball, and Axar while taking wickets, has been even worse than Jadeja with the ball. To add to all these the only reason why Binny exists in the team, to add strength to the batting, as seamers are equally poor, Binny has failed to perform. So wickets 5-8 tend to go down in the heap. India need to look at their balance and seriously need to look at their balance in these batting positions.
Today's all out in 45.2 overs makes even little sense when you see that we essentially played out top 11 batsmen. None of the bowlers had to bat, and it was out top 11 batters that took the field in the second innings. To even then get bowled out with nearly 5 overs remaining is just mind boggling.