Former Indian cricketer and selector, Dilip Vengsarkar has hugely blamed the selection process for India’s thrashing defeat in the New Zealand tour during ODI and Test series.
India started the New Zealand tour by winning the five-match T20I series by 5-0. But they massively failed to continue that momentum as they lost all the matches in the ODI and Test series. While India lost the three-match ODI series by 3-0, they also lost the two-match Test series by the 2-0.
Talking about those loses, Vengsarkar claimed according to mirror, “I feel a lot of answering has to be done by the officials at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the office-bearers of the BCCI as these losses (Test series defeats) must not be pushed under the carpet after winning the so-called T20 tournaments.”
Ahead of the ODI and Test series in the New Zealand tour, India A played the one-day, and first-class matches against the hosts New Zealand A. Some of the Test and ODI players featured for India A in that tour. However still, it didn’t work much positively for the Indian team during the international series.
Firstly, Vengsarkar hasn’t been impressed to see that the India A players missed out the Ranji Trophy matches. Then, he has felt disappointed with the performances of the India A cricketers during the international series in New Zealand tour.
He added, “The India A team too travelled to New Zealand before this tour to build and assess the bench strength. Though the timing of the A team’s tour was wrong as many had to miss out on the Ranji Trophy matches and yet nobody in the A team impressed the selectors who accompanied the team on tours. Are our cupboards empty? I am sure they are not. The BCCI and NCA must come out with facts as to how the A tours have worked.”
Admitting the home advantage, Vengsarkar pointed out the massive batting failure was the big reason for India’s poor result in New Zealand tour.
Vengsarkar said, “Whenever the team tours abroad, the conditions almost always favour the home team and that must be acceptable. India boast of a good new ball attack but to win matches, it must be backed up by a decent total on the board which the batsmen failed to deliver.”
It’s unfortunate we don’t intend to learn from our mistakes: Dilip Vengsarkar
Vengsarkar feels that the present Indian batting line-up is only depended on Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli. The former Indian cricketer believes that team management is continuously putting faith on the struggling players instead of the in-form players.
He quoted, “It’s unfortunate we don’t intend learn from our mistakes but continue to depend on the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to deliver match after match besides experimenting with others making each one of them insecure about their positions in the batting line up.
“The Indian batting line-up has come to a stage where there could be all together a new batting order in the next Test match. It’s unfair to expect Virat and Rohit to perform in every match. It’s a team game and others have to chip in as well but shockingly, match after match, those who are in form are not picked and those who are struggling make it to the XI.”
In the Test series during the latest New Zealand tour, India scored 165, 191, 242 and 124 runs.