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India's well-known batting lineup has flop for a fifth successive innings as they are stressed to handle the alternation and seaming conditions in England, India Coach Duncan Fletcher said on Wednesday.
So far India, a team which include the two highest tests runs scorers in Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, has failed to score 300 runs in a single innings during this series and are in danger of relinquish the top test ranking to England after being walloped in the first two matches.
India was bowled out for 224 on the first day of the third test after behind the toss, before England's openers cruise to 84 without loss at stumps.
Apart from Dravid, who scored hundreds in the first two tests, the other batsmen have struggle, counting world record holder Tendulkar and fellow expert VVS Laxman.
"It's been pretty hard for the batsmen to adapt," Fletcher admits after being quiz by reporters on one more batting let-down. "And I have not seen three pitches, even when I was with England (from 1999 to 2007), that have swung and seamed around as much as these have here."
"Our guys are finding it hard at the moment to handle the swing and seam. They have skillful and there's not much more they can do. It's about receiving out in the middle and putting things into practice."
Surprisingly, one of England's bowling heroes at Edgbaston, Tim Bresnan, said that the conditions did not help the hosts as much as they had expected when skipper Andrew Strauss chosen to field after winning the toss.
"As a seamier you look at the wicket and think ‘I’d prefer to bowl on there as watch someone bat on it'," Bresnan said after final with four for 62 on Wednesday.
"But it didn't really do that much. We were expecting it to be a bit quicker and seem a bit more than it did - so it's a good effort. It swing a bit but not like Trent Bridge did. So it was a case of building pressure."
While Dravid fell for 22 this time, after Bresnan bowled him with a pleasant delivery that swung away from him late, Tendulkar again missed an opportunity to register his 100th international century. He scored just one.
Tendulkar, although, still averages 54 in tests in England, while Laxman's is a shade fewer than 40 in England.
Bresnan discarded any notion that India's batsmen were underperforming and preferred to believe that the credit deserve to go to the bowling unit.
"It goes to show how well we're bowling as a unit," Bresnan added. "There's definitely that 'hunting-in-a-pack' attitude, and we do take pleasure in each other's success. It's good to watch your mate get four or five... or have a really good day with the bat."
"The Indians have not really got themselves out. We've bowled really well and stuck to our plans. It's not like they're invent ways to get out, put it that way."
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