India, July 17 -- India's misery in overseas conditions will continue as long as they choose to play too many ineffectual all-rounders. The fact that they don't have a single specialised extra batsman in the squad is enough to make one wring their hands in despair.

In England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, no matter how batting-friendly a wicket is, it's not going to play like the ones back home. Even regular batsmen struggle in these conditions; imagine what will happen when a side decides to play three half-batters. And two of them are not experts at anything. Axar Patel has shown his importance across formats for quite a few years now, so he is not the problem. Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar are.

Neither do they give co...