Indian top order needs to learn from Babar Azam and Kane Williamson: Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has asked India’s top-order batters to take a cue from Pakistan captain Babar Azam and New Zealand batter Kane Williamson on how to play the pacers in England.

Hussain’s comments came during the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final which India lost to Australia by 209 runs on Sunday.

India lost their openers — Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill — Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kolhi on 71 in their first innings in reply to Australia’s total of 469.

Chasing 444 in the fourth innings, the top-order batters got decent starts but failed to capitalise on it as they together contributed just 137.

The seaming ball which leaves the batter once again became the biggest bane for Indian batters.

“Really disappointed with the Indian batters, their fans might come after me for saying this but I think Indian top order needs to look at Babar and Kane on how to play the pacers when the ball is moving around. Both of them do it so late,” Nasser said on Sky Sports.

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar also slammed Indian batting after the team lost seven wickets in the first session of Day 5 to hand over the ICC Test mace to Australia.

India needed 280 runs on Day 5 for a victory and started with Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane at the crease. But Scott Boland got rid of Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in a same over soon and this led to a collapse as India were bowled out for 234.

“The batting was shambles today. It was just ridiculous what we saw today. Especially the shot making. We saw some ordinary shots yesterday from Pujara, somebody you never expect to play that shot. Maybe somebody has gone into his head and said ‘strike rate, strike rate’. We didn’t even last a session with this batting line-up with eight wickets in hand. Come on!”, Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

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