Jalandhar: Harbhajan Singh has blamed the top-order batsmen for India’s Champions Trophy debacle and said losing early wickets put the entire team under enormous pressure.

Harbhajan said the failure to get off to a good start took a heavy toll on the others who also failed to play to potential.

“Our batsmen was not in form as there was not much of a partnership for the first wicket due to which the other batsmen also could not perform to their potential,” Harbhajan said.

Stressing there was lot of room for improvement in batting, the offie said: “After Sehwag got out early in most matches, our batting was inconsistent... How can we get a high score without a solid foundation?

“The reason for the debacle was that we did not play well and opponents had an edge over us,” he said.

On the team’s experimentation policy, Harbhajan said: “The team has benefitted a lot from Chappell’s strategies. Some of the experiments may have failed, but it does not mean that we stop trying”