WATCH: Sourav Ganguly reflects on India's famous win in Adelaide Test
Former India captain and IndiaTV Cricket Expert Sourav Ganguly today reviewed India's memorable 31-run victory against Australia in Adelaide. Watch the full video below:
Indian captain Virat Kohli has been in news recently due to his on-field wicket celebrations coming under the scanner in Australia, with the opposition coach Justin Langer expressing his displeasure over the skipper's behaviour. However, Dada admits that Kohli shouldn't pay heed to such comments and continue the way he has been all his career as changing anything will also affect his superlative batting too.
"Virat should not desert his attitude as it has brought him so much success on the field. It has made him into the batsman that we all love and admire," said Dada full of praise for the firebrand captain.
The 113-Test veteran also backed India's decision to play Rohit Sharma in the series opener and predicted that the Mumbai batsman will go on to play all four Tests and will eventually turn out to be successful.
"I hope Rohit plays well in Perth. He is a genuine match winner and fantastic to watch being an amazing back-foot player," added Dada.
Tipping the visitors as the favourites to win the series, Dada cautioned that the next match in Perth is going to be the most important one in the context of the current series as Australia are always favourites at the venue.
"Perth is going to be the most crucial match of the series and if India can either win there or even escape with a draw it will be really tough to stop them from winning the series. Australia always play well at Perth with his high pace and bounce," opined Ganguly.
The Prince of Kolkata also singled out Indian opener KL Rahul for some criticism and advised him to tighten his game soon enough.
"Rahul has to tighten his game even if he doesn't score many runs. He should always look to stay at the crease till the first 15-20 overs at least. If it brings him runs, great but if not, so be it! The openers have to wear down the new ball threat so that the rest of the batsmen can benefit from it and score heavily. In 2003 our opener Akash Chopra used to do that for us and the rest is history," explained Dada.
Even though the hosts ended up on the losing side, their off-spinner Nathan Lyon bagged a six-for in India's second innings and outperformed the opposition's highly acclaimed spinner Ravi Ashwin. Ganguly thinks that Lyon will continue to remain a threat and Indian batsmen might have to sometimes think out of the box to tackle him.
"Lyon is a very good spinner. The last time in Adelaide he took the match away from a rampaging Kohli. He consistently uses the rough and keeps hitting the spot all the time which brings him rich rewards. The Indian batsmen might try sweeping him from outside the off-stump to disturb his line and lenghts. This could be a way to counter the guy," signed off Dada.
Earlier on Monday, India gave wings to their quest for a maiden series win in Australia with a 31-run victory in the opening Test, their first in the country since 2008, with Rishabh Pant equalling a world record along the way.
Chasing 323, the hosts were bowled out for 291 in 119.5 overs shortly before tea on day five with Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami taking three wickets each for a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
Pant finished with 11 catches, and equalled the record for most dismissals in a Test by a wicketkeeper, sharing it with England's Jack Russell and South Africa's AB de Villiers.
This was the first time India won the opening Test of a series in Australia in 70 years.
Things went too close for comfort for India as Nathan Lyon (38 not out) and Josh Hazlewood (13) put on 42 runs for the last wicket and frustrated the Indian bowling. The sparse crowd at Adelaide Oval cheered every single as the duo edged closer and the odd boundary didn't help matters.
Finally, things came to a close as Ashwin had Hazlewood caught at second slip in the 120th over to register India's sixth Test win on Australian soil.
