Indian batsmen to blame for defeat, says Dhoni

The tourists recorded a world-record equalling six ducks in the first innings and the top order again failed in the second.

England claimed nine wickets after tea on the third day to skittle India for 161 in 43 overs, just two days after they were dismissed for 152. Dhoni said: “The batting department will have to improve, especially as we are playing one bowler more.

“The top five or six will have to get more runs so the bowlers will feel comfortable.

“It is important to put runs on the board and to some extent the Lord’s win and the performance of (numbers) seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 have camouflaged the problem. The top order is not really performing so well.

“The one good thing we saw in this Test match was there is help there for the fast bowlers. They took wickets of the opposition, which is very important to win games.”

Dhoni admitted the first session, after he had won the toss and chosen to bat, badly damaged his side’s chances.

He said: “That had a very big impact on the game, but a lot of things had consequences in this match.

“Hopefully we will learn from this and move into the next one, which will be very important for us.”

England captain Alastair Cook hailed his team after their remarkable transformation of fortunes in the Investec Test Series against India.

Cook admitted England were at “rock bottom” less than three weeks ago – and he faced much questioning of his own position – after losing the second Test at Lord’s to fall 1-0 behind, before their stunning comeback.

Cook explained: “We were pretty much at rock bottom at Lord’s but with the glimmer of Rooty (Joe Root) scoring a lot of runs, Gaz (Gary Ballance) coming in and doing really well and the younger guys who had come into the side.

“It was a matter of the senior guys stepping up to the plate, and we have done that in the last couple of games.”