Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has blamed head coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Sanjay Bangar for series loss against England. Ganguly believes both these coaches should answer why only Virat Kohli is making runs.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been a lone warrior for the Indian team and has done the bulk of the scoring. Thus, the other batsmen have failed to join the party which has led to the downfall of the team.
India had lost the Test series against South Africa 2-1 and now have lost in England as well.
Another overseas loss for India.
“Regarding Ravi Shastri, he has to be held accountable for the results along with Sanjay Bangar regarding why only one batsman is performing whereas others seem to have taken backward steps. Unless these questions are answered an overseas series win in the three countries looks impossible for India,” Ganguly told IndiaTV.
Meanwhile, India lost the fourth Test match by 60 runs and also the series. Ganguly believes India were let down by their batting as Virat Kohli is battling a lone battle. Furthermore, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara haven’t been consistent.
Virat Kohli is the lone warrior.
“This batting lineup hasn’t been making runs for a long time now. If you look at India’s overseas performances from 2011 until now, they have lost every big series. When Virat Kohli is at the crease it seems that he is playing against totally different bowlers as compared to when the other batsmen are batting. I believe that the batting ability of the current players has gone down. There are a lot of reasons for this. Firstly, the players are short of confidence, whether you look at (Cheteshwar) Pujara or (Ajinkya) Rahane, you’ll find that four years ago, the latter was matching Kohli shot-by-shot in Adelaide which is not the case at the moment. The same goes for Pujara too”, said Dada.
Runs are crucial.
In fact, the Southampton match was over once Virat Kohli was out. Sourav Ganguly believes taking 20 wickets in the Test match will not help India in winning matches as they will need to score runs as well.
“I can understand why Virat Kohli is saying what he is saying in the press conference because you still have to sound positive in such situations. But in the last 7 away Tests, India has lost five. Agreed that the Southampton Test was a close contest, but after Kohli got out the commentators started saying that India will lose the match. That is what happened and has been happening for quite some time now, match after match, innings after innings. Just taking 20 wickets won’t win you matches, you have to score runs as well,” he asserted.
The Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly believes India got their selection right in the fourth Test match. However, Ashwin was not able to create the same impact as Moeen Ali. Subsequently, Ganguly listed out the difference between the two spinners.
Ashwin was not on target.
“In my opinion, the selection for the fourth Test was alright. The ball was turning from the footmarks outside the right-hander’s off-stump. The ball wasn’t turning at right-angles when Ali was bowling to the left-handed Pant. Jadeja’s record outside India is not great anyway and the pitch wasn’t suited for two spinners. A spinner will have to use the rough patches when playing outside India. When I was the captain, at times I used to bowl Harbhajan Singh ahead of Anil Kumble because I wanted him to use that rough. Virat Kohli will have to talk to Ashwin about why he looks so impatient. He is bowling six different deliveries in an over. Ability-wise Moeen Ali is not better than Ashwin. Rather Ashwin is twice as good as Ali as a spinner. But Ali keeps his bowling simple. On the other hand, Ashwin keeps experimenting with the doosra, wrong’un and leg-spin rather than utilizing the rough. Sometimes in Test cricket, you have to become boring to win matches,” said Sourav Ganguly.
India was not up to the mark in the ongoing Test series. In fact, they let the advantage baton slip away as England recovered from 87 for 6 in first innings of the previous match.
The fifth Test match will take place at Kennington Oval, London from 7th of September.