Ganguly on India’s loss in the 4th Test: “Unhappy with Ashwin’s experimentation”

Ganguly on India’s loss in the 4th Test: Former India captain expresses disappointment on Ravichandran Ashwin’s performance.

Sourav Ganguly, India’s most successful captain of his time, has joined the queue of cricketers who have criticized the current Indian cricket team for their below par performance during the fourth Test of the ongoing Pataudi Trophy against England.

After strong comments from Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar and the others, the normally outspoken Ganguly has also come out in public to criticize the way this team has played.

Speaking during a TV show at India Today, Ganguly particularly targeted Team India’s premier off-spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin, blaming him for not sticking to his basics in the hope of yielding results from constant experimentation.

Playing as the lone spinner for his team, Ashwin was expected to make inroads into the English batting line-up, especially their lower order. Although the 31-year old spinner was economical in his approach, constant experimentation didn’t let him make the required impact against the opposition bowlers.

Moreover, Ashwin was often seen bowling short of a length deliveries, which didn’t cause any harm to the English players. On the same wicket, his counterpart in Moeen Ali spun his team to victory with match-winning spells in both the innings.

“Virat Kohli will have to talk to Ashwin about why he looks so impatient. He is bowling six different deliveries in an over. Ability-wise Moeen Ali is not better than Ashwin. Rather Ashwin is twice as good as Ali as a spinner.

“But Ali keeps his bowling simple. On the other hand, Ashwin keeps experimenting with the doosra, wrong’un and leg-spin rather than utilising the rough. Sometimes in Test cricket, you have to become boring to win matches”, Ganguly was quoted.

India take on England in the dead rubber fifth Test of the series on September 7. Working on these three key areas might help them to save their pride and register another victory in the series.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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