Sourav Ganguly wants India to play five bowlers against South Africa

India hit a roadblock when they met the fiery Lankans on Thursday. The high flying Indian side that was supposed to cruise through the group stages were derailed by familiar foes, making them go through a ‘warm up’ knockout game before the actual ones begun. South Africa too find themselves in a similar situation. The number 1 ranked team in the world, the star studded South African unit, just refused to turn up the other day against Pakistan. They too face the ugly proposition of going back home should things not go according to plan tonight.

The Indian team has a problem of plenty. It just feels like they are a change away from finding that correct balance. Hardik Pandya has been drafted in as the all rounder but a lot of people feel that he is the reason that something just feels off about India. His bowling isn’t very suited for English conditions and thus he has been leaking far too many runs.

Virat will need to discuss all the possibilities and make a few changes to the 11 today, especially after the heart wrenching loss against Sri Lanka. Aswhin is one player that will surely make his way into the 11, given the fact that South Africa have three left handers in their top 6. But who will make way for him?

Sourav Ganguly has said that he wants Virat to drop Hardik for today’s game and go in with 5 specialist bowlers instead.

“I think Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja should play. Drop Hardik Pandya, bring back Ashwin. India should play five bowlers against South Africa,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly feels that India have batted and bowled brilliantly in the last few months and the loss against Sri Lanka was mainly because the Sri Lankan batters batted out of their skin.

“Not only batting, India’s bowling has also looked good except for just one game. Sri Lanka batted exceptionally well,” Ganguly said.

“Play sensibly, it’s about absorbing pressure. Viart Kohli is a terrific player, one of the best in the format. He is a world-class one-day batsman,” he said hoping that Virat can guide Indian to the semi finals