Sabyasachi Bagchi, Kolkata: After loosing the Test series in South Africa Indian cricket team is facing criticism regarding the team selection but, it was unexpected to hear from V.V.S.Laxman and Dilip Vengsarkar as they are also not at all impressed with the performance of team India and specially with the team selection.
India lost by 72 runs in Cape Town followed by 135 runs defeat in Centurion. www.xtratime.in talked with these two stalwarts of Indian cricket about the performance of team India. ” This is not the first time India losing the test series overseas but, it’s shocking to see Virat Kohli’s team failed to give any kind of competition and it’s hard to believe that South Africa playing against World’s No.1 ranked team. India just surrendered to South Africa in this series. ” said Laxman.
According to him Indian bowlers did well but, he blamed team management for the result and said, “It’s not at all a sub – continent pitch, why they kept Rahane on the bench and relied on Rohit? Management also failed to understand the pitch of Centurion as they dropped Bhuvneswar Kumar who was the most successful bowler in the first Test. They should drop Bumrah.”
Vengsarkar blamed Indian Coach Ravi Shastri and said, ” He went as a player in 1991-92 series after that he went as a commentator many times, he knew about the pitch and the conditions very well. We expected much more from him.”
Shastri did some controversial comments about the former captains after trashing Sri Lanka in all formats. Vengsarkar also criticised about it as he said, “Now the team should realise the difference between Sri Lanka and South Africa. ”
Later he said not only the team management but also dependency on Virat is also a major concern.” When Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kemble played for the national team India won many test overseas because they had a stroke player like Virender Sehwag. In this team Shikhar Dhawan is a very good stroke player but he had to make way for K.L Rahul who was not at all in form. Another opener Murali Vijay is also not in good touch and Pujara failed to score runs in both the test matches. This shows the lack of skill in this team.”
Though India is still the World’s best side in tests but this series shows the team have to work out hard to win in overseas in the longest format of the game.