Vijay Shankar should be given one more chance, says VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman wants Team India think-tank to stick with Vijay Shankar for tomorrow's match against England

Birmingham: India's unbeaten run notwithstanding, former batting star VVS Laxman is not totally convinced with the way the team are going about their business. Ahead of the big World Cup match against England here at Edgbaston, Laxman spoke to mid-day on the sidelines of the ICC and UNICEF's One Day for Children campaign.

Excerpts:

Are you concerned about India's batting form?
I feel India are playing 70 per cent of their potential. They are still overly dependent on Kohli and Rohit to get big runs. KL Rahul has to convert his starts into big scores. The middle-order hasn't performed to potential. Vijay got his chances, but he has not capitalised on them. Kedar was out of action because of injury, but he is yet to find rhythm even though he got that half-century against Afghanistan. So, the area of improvement centres around wanting big scores apart from Virat and Rohit.

VVS Laxman

Do you agree that Vijay has not capitalised on his opportunities?
As of now, yes. I believe he has got the potential and that is why he is picked. Against Afghanistan and WI, he had a great opportunity to score big. And he had Virat at the other end, who was dominating. But, the team management should give him one more game. If he doesn't perform then they have options in the form of Karthik and Pant.

Who should get the nod between Karthik and Pant?
It depends on what the team management wants. With the experience of Karthik, you know what you will get. But with the left-hand option that he provides, I think the Indian team can have the flexibility of not promoting Hardik [at No. 4] which they have done. When the sun is out and the wicket is dry, Pant is a good option and can be promoted. You can have the experience of Dhoni and the exuberance of Pandya at the finishing stages.

There is a lot of talk about Dhoni's slow starts.
The way he finished [v WI] was unbelievable. The biggest takeaway is that Dhoni has the confidence of hitting those big sixes at will. Even in the last over [v WI], he didn't give the strike to Kuldeep, and he hit two massive sixes off Oshane Thomas. If you don't rotate the strike, it will put pressure on yourself and the set batsman; it may force him to play a big shot in trying to accelerate. If he can just work on the approach in the first part of his innings, where it is not about playing those risky shots, [it will be great]

England are expected to come hard at India…
It is a must-win game for England, but I believe that the Indian team will not look too much into the opposition. They will look to find ways to improve their game and that's been the formula for Team India from the first game. Champion sides do that. They don't really look at the opposition. They try to achieve their targets whether it is with batting, bowling or fielding.

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