Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly gave a brutal verdict on the Test series loss against Australia and said that Indian batters need to score big in red-ball cricket. Ganguly pointed out that India will not be able to win Tests if they continue to post small totals and advised them to aim at scoring 350-400 in order to provide a solid foundation to the bowlers. India were defeated 1-3 in the five-match Test series against Australia and their loss in the final Test in Sydney ends any hope of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. While Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma has faced a lot of criticism, Ganguly did not single out any player and said that all of them need to score runs for India to win.
“We did not bat well, we have to bat well in Test cricket. If you do not bat well, you will not win Test matches. If you score 170, 180, you cannot win Test matches. You have to score 350-400,” he was quoted as saying by India Today.
“No one can be blamed. Everyone has to score runs,” the former India captain added.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma wilted under the traditional Australian tactic of mentally breaking down the opposition captains during the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, said former spinner Kerry O’Keeffe.
India lost the five-match series 1-3 and Rohit made just 31 runs from three Tests at an average of 6.20.
“They couldn’t bring down (Jasprit) Bumrah. He was too good. But then the baton was passed to Rohit Sharma and they brought him down straight away, to the extent that he withdrew from the final Test,” O’Keeffe told Fox Sports.
“So that’s a tactic they seem to want to do if they can, if they can break the skipper and make him anonymous, it empowers them,” he added.
It may be recalled that former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath used to make pre-series predictions as how many times he will dismiss the opposition captain and it often worked against the likes of ex-England skipper Michael Atherton.
Bumrah led India in the first Test at Perth in the absence of Rohit, who stayed back in India for the birth of his second child.
India won the match by 295 runs. The 37-year-old Rohit took over from Bumrah in the second Test in Adelaide, but his personal form and the team’s fortunes went south from that point.
Eventually, Rohit “opted out” of the fifth and final Test Sydney with Bumrah returning to guide the side.
(With PTI inputs)
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