In England, Dilip Vengsarkar knows a thing or two about batting. Even the fact that India won a famous Test series there in 1986 owed a great deal to the former India batsman, who smashed two centuries during the historic tour. In the three-Test series, Vengsarkar scored 360 runs, including centuries at Lord’s (126) and Leeds (102), as India won the series 2-0.
With the exception of the 2002 and 2007 tours, India’s batting in England has not met expectations. Sure, there have been some outstanding individual performances, such as Rahul Dravid’s in 2011 and Virat Kohli’s in 2018, but the Indian batting has largely capitulated, resulting in crushing series losses – 0-4 in 2011, 1-3 in 2014, and 1-4 in 2018.
Ahead of India’s World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the five-Test series against England, which begins in August, Vengsarkar has some helpful advice for Indian batsmen.
“The thing is that once you get acclimatized, the important factor is that, to counter the extra movement, especially off the wicket, it’s important to stay side-on (batting stance). Don’t go for big drives to start with because the ball moves quite a bit and if you go for a big drive when you see a half volley, you are likely to end up in slips or anywhere. So just push the ball rather than going for the big drives,” said Vengsarkar
“In England sometimes you get overcast conditions and the ball starts moving, then suddenly you get sunshine and it becomes a good batting wicket. You get different seasons in one day in England. So, you, as a batsman, are never settled. In India, once you are set and score 30 plus runs, you can score a big innings. But that doesn’t happen in England. You are never set as such, you know. The ball moves around quite a bit and you have to be careful.”
“So it’s important for the BCCI also to organise more practice matches rather than having just one practice game before the start of the Test series. Otherwise, you struggle in the first Test match.”
