Kolkata: Echoing Virat Kohli’s concern about cramped scheduling ahead of the all-important tour to South Africa, former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Friday said the Indian team needed time to prepare before heading off to such a tough tour. Speaking at the India Today Conclave East 2017, Ganguly said “He was talking about scheduling of cricket which is so correct. You got to give team’s time to prepare when they go to South Africa,” Ganguly said.
On Thursday, Kohli made his frustration very clear that they will only get two days after the Sri Lanka series before they leave for South Africa. The Indian captain emphasised that the scheduling between series need to be looked after before assessing the performance of cricketers in future.
“As usual cramped for time, which I think we needed to assess in future as well because we very easily assess the team when we go abroad but we don’t look at how many days we have got to prepare before we go to a particular place to play,” Kohli said on Thursday.
He added, “And everyone starts judging players when results come after Test matches. But it should be a fair game, where we get to prepare the way we want to and then we are entitled to be criticised. So we thought this (getting seam-friendly wickets at the ongoing series) is an ample opportunity for us to challenge ourselves, put us in a situation.”
India will finish their limited overs matches against Sri Lanka on December 24 (final T20I) before they fly off to South Africa on December 28, with the first Test starting on January 5. The Men in Blue will play three Tests, five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).