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