IND vs ENG: Big Tons Missing For India, Opening Pair Continues To Disappoint

Notwithstanding India's remarkable series win over Australia on the recent tour Down Under, their entire batting unit has managed just one individual century over the last 11.

Gill, who made his debut at Sydney has been performing and getting half-centuries but the job of an opener is to get the ball old for the middle-order batsmen. Former India batsman Anshuman Gaekwad says the toss mattered in Chennai a lot.

"It happens. I think it was the toss that made the difference. If India had won the toss, things might have been different," Gaekwad told IANS.

India skipper Virat Kohli also hinted at it. "If you look at the second innings of both sides, they were both struggling in second innings," Kohli told the media on Tuesday. However, that doesn't explain India's inability to get centuries in previous games. Kohli also said that he is not overly worried about individual players' failure or ability to get centuries.

"Whether someone has scored a century in the last five games doesn't matter to us. We want to be able to get long partnerships. In that process, if people get to a big milestone then it is good. We are not worried about milestones (centuries). We wanted to have big partnerships and in that process, if someone gets to the milestone then it is good," the India skipper said.

"Even if someone had gotten a hundred in either innings we would have still pretty much been behind the game. That is something we need to understand rather than thinking about milestones instead of thinking about what we couldn't achieve as batsmen in terms of scoring centuries."

But as Joe Root has shown over the last three Test matches - two against Sri Lanka and one against India, big centuries do matter. His 228, 186, and 218 have helped England score big in the first innings and register big victories.