XtraTime Web Desk: Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar isn’t impressed with Virat Kohli’s captaincy while Harbhajan Singh criticised R Ashwin’s performance.
“When Virat took over the captaincy, everybody thought that it will be a completely different way because you had MSD (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) who was cool, calm and collected and here was somebody who was very passionate,” Gavaskar told.
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“Everyone thought that he will bring in a lot more energy into the team. The earlier results were certainly encouraging. But then we all knew that the real test is going to be South Africa in South Africa, England in England and in Australia later this year. Yes, I think that the result overseas and outside the sub-continent – if you leave the West Indies and Zimbabwe aside – certainly not have been as per expectations. So quite expectedly there will be questions asked about his captaincy.”He added.
Though, Gavaskar praised Virat for his outstanding batting performance. He said, “”As far as his batting is concerned, he has been absolutely terrific. Not many captains have scored over 500 runs in a series and still ended up on the losing side. Individually he has done absolutely superbly. Unfortunately, he hasn’t had the kind of back-up that would’ve enabled him to win this Test series.”
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Harbhajan Singh, who is in England doing commentary duties for the ongoing Test series, was critical of his fellow off-spinner’s performances, saying he failed to pick wickets when it “mattered the most”.
“There was so much help available on this wicket for the off-spinners. Just landing the ball at that particular rough patch would have fetched a lot of wickets,” said Harbhajan. “That is exactly what Moeen Ali did and got so many wickets.
“India lost the match where Moeen Ali bowled better than R Ashwin. For the first time, I saw England spinners bowling better than our spinners. Him (Ashwin) not being able to take wickets is the reason why we are 1-3 behind in the series.
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“Ashwin is a great bowler and has achieved so much for India. But he failed to take wickets when it mattered the most, that is on Day 3. Had he taken just two or three wickets, not even a five-wicket haul, then India would have been chasing a target of 160-170 runs for victory which was very much achievable.”
Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly also opened up as India lost the series against England.