Kumar Sangakkara stands firm in support of Team India

The conditions and the fast bowlers in England have troubled the Indian batsmen, to such an extent that apart from skipper Virat Kohli, none else has even scored a half century in 4 innings. Kohli, with his first knock of the series, bettered his total contribution from the previous tour. Coming in here with 134 runs in 10 innings from 2014, he responded with a 149 and 51 at Edgbaston. He scored 200 runs in the first Test whereas the rest of the team collectively managed 214. However, Kumar Sangakkara doesn’t think the team is too dependent on Kohli.

In the second Test match, the skipper returned with a total of 40 runs and the Indian team could just score 107 in the first innings and 130 in the second. Murali Vijay bagged a pair in both the innings, Dinesh Karthik scored 1 and 0; no other batsman except Ravichandran Ashwin got past the 30-run mark. They lost the Lord’s Test by an innings and 159 runs, since then all the batsmen have been widely criticised and the team for its overdependence on Kohli and under-preparedness coming into the series.

Former Sri Lankan captain, Sangakkara said that in a team where someone like Virat is batting so well it is easy for others to be overlooked, however, he definitely has seen notable impact from other batsmen as well.

“It is almost unfair to the other batsmen because we have seen Virat batting like he has for the last few years. It is incredible to watch and he is an incredible performer, but others are also fantastic players,” Sanga told PTI in an interview.

Fantastic players in the team

He praised the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane who have an overall Test average over 50 and an overseas average of 50 respectively.

“Pujara and Rahane are absolutely great batsmen — Pujara averages 50 in Test cricket, Rahane averages 50 overseas. Then, there are others. KL Rahul looks brilliant (when in form), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik — these are no insignificant names,” he added.

The team management had scheduled just one warm-up match before the five-match Test series which was further cut short to a three-day affair from four. Sanga thinks lack of preparation could possibly be a reason that they’ve struggled to get going thus far in the series.

“They have struggled here and one of the reasons could be lack of preparation. So they really need to think hard because you cannot prepare while you are playing the Test matches. You have to find that confidence to answer the questions asked by English bowlers in training and in practice games.

“English bowlers have exploited the usual sub-continental weaknesses here and that has created more questions than answers for the Indian side,” he stated.

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