Virat should not worry about team combinations, feels Sourav Ganguly

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has some serious words of advice for the Indian captain Virat Kohli. Team India are languishing behind 0-1 in the 3-match Test series against South Africa. With the Centurion Test coming up, there are a lot of talks about the possible Indian lineup for the Test. Amidst this scenario, Ganguly has come up with some suggestions for Kohli.

Sourav Ganguly, as per the quotes in Times of India, remarked that the Indian captain should not think too much about the team combinations. There has been a lot of discussion going on over KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane being drafted in the side. Ganguly feels that chopping and changing the team combinations will do no good to the Indian team players. He hopes that Kohli shows faith in his players and backs them in times of crisis.

“Virat Kohli should not worry about such things [team combination]. Although KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane have a good history of scoring runs away from the sub-continent and have better records as batsmen, India can’t just chop-and-change in every game. They have shown faith in the current batting and that should continue in the next Test as well. They still have two more Tests to play and I feel all the matches will produce results,” quoted Sourav Ganguly.

“There has been a lot of talk about the combination. India did the right thing by going in with five bowlers. As much as scoring runs is important in a bid to win Test matches, getting wickets is also key. The reason why we were thinking of an Indian win at some point is because the bowlers got 20 wickets and that will continue to be an important criteria over the next two Tests,” mentioned the former captain.

On Hardik Pandya

If there was a bright spot in the batting for the Indian cricket team, then it Hardik Pandya. Pandya hit a brilliant 93 in the first innings to lead India’s fightback from a score of 92/7. Also, he bagged a couple of key wickets in the second innings. Ganguly praised Pandya but stressed that the overall batting failed and that will hurt India’s morale.

“Hardik Pandya came good with the bat and India should persist with him. The problem lies with the overall batting performance, and this has to be fixed soon. There will be lot of talk about players who were not in the playing eleven. That’s always the case when you lose,” he conceded.

On Indian batsmen faltering in Cape Town

Commenting on the dismal show put on by the Indian batsmen in either of the innings in Cape Town, Sourav Ganguly sympathized with the Indian batsmen. He mentioned that he has also played on similar surfaces in the past and knows how it feels to bat on a bowling-friendly track. He, however, added that the conditions were tough for India since it was the first game of the tour.

“I have played on similar sorts of pitches in the past, at Headingley or the Wanderers, and though India finished on the winning side then, the bowlers were always in the game. To be honest, this was a tough pitch for Indian batsmen as it was the first Test of the series and the boys were still getting used to the conditions,” he opined.

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