Mohammad Azharuddin blames coaching staff post India's Test series defeat to England

Southampton: Former India cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin on Tuesday expressed his unhappiness on Virat Kohli-led Team India’s recent performance in the ongoing Test series against England, which they have already lost.

India fell short by 60 runs in the fourth Test here recently with just one more match to be played.

"We lost the series because of poor batting and our batsmen were committing the same mistakes throughout. What is our coaching staff doing ?”, he was quoted saying by the Times of India.

"Technically, our batsmen were found wanting. We did'nt play the moving ball well. We cant depend only on Virat Kohli. Openers like Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul too didn't get runs. The middle-order was left with too much to do. We should have taken at least a 100-run lead after Cheteshwar Pujara's hundred (in the fourth Test)," he added.

Azharduddin added that this was the best chance for Kohli and co to prove their away record.

"We could have done better. This was our best chance to win the series because we had the best bowling attack and in every game they got those 20 wickets and gave our team a chance to throttle the opposition," the 55-year-old continued.

Azharuddin admitted that the target was not a tough one and could have been chased with ease.

“It wasn’t a big target they were chasing. We lost the plot very easily. Even our spinner R Ashwin wasn’t all that effective”, he added.

The fifth and final Test kicks off at The Oval on Friday.