Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has said that Virat Kohli is way ahead of his teammates when it comes to scoring runs. The Indian team has been criticized in recent times for being too dependent on the Delhi batsman but Ganguly said that the other batsmen have the ability to win the matches for the team. Apart from Kohli, the other batsmen have failed to get going in the series but Ganguly hoped them to get back their form in the series decider at Vizag.
Talking to India Today, Ganguly said:“Not everybody is in the same league as Virat Kohli… all six or seven players cannot be of the same ability. But I think there are players who have won India matches, it’s just that they haven’t got going in this series.”
“The likes of Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Manish Pandey and even Ajinkya Rahane. But hopefully, they can get going in the last game of the series in Vizag.”
One of the most important reasons for India’s not so impressive performance in this series is the failure of openers to give the team good starts. Rohit Sharma has scored just 53 runs in the four games so far while Rahane, who scored 72 runs in the last ODI, has scored 123 runs.
Ganguly said:“Openers are important in any format if they don’t get runs it exposes the middle order. And once Kohli and Dhoni get out quickly it puts a lot of pressure on the middle order. That’s the name of the game.
“If you have six batsmen in the side you expect three of them to fire and win cricket matches for you. It happened in Mohali where MS and Virat fired and won you the game. So hopefully as I said in Vizag they can turn the heat on,” he added.
The five-match series is currently locked at 2-2 after New Zealand defeated the hosts by 19 runs in the last match. The former player advised the Indian team to forget about the last match and treat the series-decider as a final.
“The series decider is like a final so get ready for one final game and try and do your best. What’s happened in the past is gone… New Zealand has come back well and so have India. So treat it like a final and win it from here,” Ganguly said.
Citing the example of the ODI series against Australia in 2013, Ganguly said:“India have done it in the past, a couple of years ago (in 2013-14) they were 2-1 down against Australia at home and came back to win the series 3-2. So this is another opportunity to get past New Zealand.”
He also advised the hosts to remain careful from the visitors. With the pitch far from being ideal, the former skipper said that the Black Caps have a big chance to bag the series.
“We saw the Kiwis come out with a definite plan in the T20 World Cup against us this year, so India has got to be very careful. The reports on the pitch in Vizag haven’t been good, there was a Ranji match played there a few weeks ago where the match finished in two days and everyone was complaining about the wicket. It’s a newly-laid surface and I’m told that rain is also expected on Saturday.
“The curators won’t have enough time to prepare the pitch properly. So I’m really looking forward to how it’s going to behave, because if it’s a poor pitch I think New Zealand will have a big chance,” Ganguly concluded.