Sourav Ganguly is immensely impressed with two Windies players

Former captain of the Indian Cricket Team, Sourav Ganguly, thinks “all is not down in the dumps for Caribbean cricket”, as the two youngsters, Shimron Hetmyer & Shai Hope, played some important knocks to revive their team’s hopes and place the 5-match ODI series in balance at 1-1, with two matches still to go.

After being whitewashed by the mighty Indian side, led by Virat Kohli, in the Tests, this Caribbean side looked nowhere near the mighty Caribbean team of the late 20th century. However, they’ve done well in the ODI series till now, keeping in mind there’s no Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis at their disposal.

Shimron and Shai have given Windies new hope. The former scored a fine century in the first ODI at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati and almost scored another one as he fell for a quick-fire 94 in the second match at Vizag. Shai Hope, on the other hand, scored a very important 123* that helped the team to tie the game while chasing a big target of 322 runs and also hit 95 in the third ODI that the Caribbean side won in Pune.

Holder has been impressive as well

“After a very one-sided Test series, the West Indies have really put up a very impressive show in limited-overs. Jason Holder has been impressive with his leadership abilities and the likes of Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, and Ashley Nurse have indicated that all is not down in the dumps for Caribbean cricket,” wrote Sourav Ganguly in his column for The Times Of India on Monday.

Ganguly, who is said to have revived a rather ‘dead’ Indian side after he took over the captaincy in 2000, captained India in 49 Tests, winning 21 and losing 13, reckons Kohli’s unending appetite to score big makes him stand out from the rest.

“One is at a loss of words when it comes to talking about Virat Kohli’s superlative talent. There are already lot of comparisons. Some are saying his talent and domination are of ‘Bradmansque’ proportions, some are already commenting on whether he will go past the Sachin ‘100’. Comparisons have also featured Brian Lara and Viv Richards, but my point is simple: let statistics take care of themselves,” Ganguly further added.

~Written by Nahmat Maeraj