Ganguly pinpoints loopholes in Kohli's captaincy, asks other batters to take responsibility

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Following India’s loss to England at Edgbaston on Saturday, former captain Sourav Ganguly has stated that the failure of batters against the English swing bowling can’t be used as an excuse.

Ganguly, in an Instagram post, asserted that this team has the capability of making a strong comeback in the series but, at the same time, he suggested that the batsmen should be prepared to bat well in such conditions.

“The failure against swing in English conditions can't be used as an excuse any more as everyone knows that it’s what you get when you come to England,” wrote Ganguly.

“You can't be excused all the time & we have lost before in 2011 & 2014. You've to bat well. It's a very well known fact that the ball will swing in England the same way as Australia is known for its pacy wickets. So if previously you've scored runs there is no reason you can't now,” he added.

Disliking Kohli’s phenomena of changing the squad in almost every game of a particular test series, Ganguly suggested that instead of dropping the players on poor output, they should be given time to prove their mettle.

He said, “The captain should give confidence to his players. It's his team & only he can change their mindset. He will have to sit with them & tell them that if he can do it so can they. He should give them time & tell them to go out & play without any fear. It is true that after continuous chopping & changing of the playing XI, players can get afraid that after all these years they've failed to garner the faith of the team management.”

Citing the example of a few Indian legendary cricketers including himself, the former skipper stressed on the fact that a good player needs to be given proper chance, no matter what the format is.

“The good thing about the great teams of the past - whether it be Australia, SouthAfrica or our very own team which won the Test series here in 2007 - was that the boys used to play both formats of the game – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, including myself. So even if you played badly in 1 or 2 matches you got a lot of time to get back into form at the international level. Playing & scoring 150 in first-class cricket can't compensate for international cricket. In this team, no batsman except Virat plays all the formats.”

The Indian top and middle batting order terribly failed to perform in both the innings. The Indian bowlers did a commendable job in the second innings but the batters couldn’t manage to chase a minimal target of 194 runs.

Keeping the forthcoming matches, Ganguly described how the other batsmen in the team need to come forward and take the responsibility. He said,

“If you've to win a Test then everyone has to score runs. The other batsmen have to score 100's as well. Ajinkya Rahane & Murali Vijay will have to show some determination since they have scored runs in these conditions before. I don't think the captain is responsible for the loss. If you're the captain then you'll be criticised for a loss the same way as you're congratulated for a win.”