Exclusive | Sourav Ganguly reveals the SMS that he wanted to send to Virat Kohli which could have won India the Perth Test
Former India captain and IndiaTV's cricket expert Sourav Ganguly has expressed disappointment at Indian batsmen failures against Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon, that too outside the subcontinent. The latter who has already taken 17 wickets in the two Tests of the series has emerged as the biggest threat to the visitor's batting order in a country usually known for assisting pace.
On IndiaTV's show 'Cricket Ki Baat', the 113-Test veteran revealed that he wanted to send an SMS to the Indian captain Virat Kohli regarding the failures of his team against spin while advising a different strategy to counter the likes of Lyon.
"I had thought of sending a text to Kohli but I haven't done it yet. I wanted to tell him that you shouldn't give so many wickets to spinners outside the subcontinent. There is no doubt that Nathan Lyon is a great spinner but so were Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Swann.
"They have shown him too much respect by defending a lot of deliveries outside the off-stump. Instead, I feel they should attack him more and look to build towards at least a total in excess of 300-350," said Dada.
On the matter of the continuing failures of the Indian batsmen on overseas tours, Dada too was disappointed with their showing and asserted that winning Tests is not possible until the batsmen perform to their potential.
"For all of India's top order batsmen, this is not their first tour to Australia. They have been there before. Logically their game should improve over the years but from what we saw in Perth, it is difficult to say it has. Barring Kohli and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, none of them are making a lot of runs and this is not good for the team. If India have to win, they will have to do a lot more."
When asked about his opinions on team selection for the Perth Test where India went in with four fast bowlers and no spinner in the playing eleven, Ganguly was of the view that the primary fault lies with the batsmen and the team management.
"I don't think picking up Umesh yadav lost India the match. The main problem is that the team has failed to touch the 300-run mark overseas most of the times in the past year or so. If you can't do it, then it gets really dificult to win Test matches. Head coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Sanjay Bangar must answer for India's repeated batting failures outside the sub-continent," signed off Dada.
