Team India has yet again failed to bring out their best against England in the Southampton Test as they have now lost the five-match Test series as well by losing the game by 60 runs in the 4th Test in Southampton. Despite raising the hopes of the Indian fans after winning the third Test at Trent Bridge, most of the Indian batsmen almost surrendered themselves in front of Moeen Ali and Co.As a result of that, Team India under the guidance of Ravi Shastri has conceded an unassailable 3-1 lead in the ongoing five-match series.
During a recent show on IndiaTV, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly revealed that it was a poor performance by the Indian batsmen as they failed to chase down modest totals in Tests. He said, “If you look at India’s overseas performances from 2011 until now, they have lost every big series. When Virat Kohli is at the crease it seems that he is playing against totally different bowlers as compared to when the other batsmen are batting. I believe that the batting ability of the current players has gone down. Firstly, the players are short of confidence, whether you look at (Cheteshwar) Pujara or (Ajinkya) Rahane, you’ll find that four years ago, the latter was matching Kohli shot-by-shot in Adelaide which is not the case at the moment. The same goes for Pujara too.”
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Moeen took nine wickets in Southampton almost emulating his feat from 2014 when he bagged ten in the match. Ganguly had a different take on the tweaker’s match-winning performance: “The primary reason why Moeen bowls so well against India in England is that there is continuous pressure being applied by (James) Anderson and Co. from the other end. So Moeen gets wickets because batsmen feel that they can release that pressure against him. But when the same Moeen comes to India and realizes that he has to be the chief wicket-taker, he is a different bowler altogether.”
Ganguly continued with the same tone as he said that the Indian skipper along with his coach Shastri can’t give same statements after losing matches on the trot just for the sake of looking positive in such situations. India has lost 5 out of the 7 Test they have played so far and despite the fact that a couple of them were pretty close, Dada felt disappointed after hearing from the commentators that after Kohli’s wicket there is nothing left for India. He also insisted on the fact that in order to win Test matches, taking 20 wickets isn’t sufficient as the batsmen also have to put runs on the board.
However, Ganguly also defended the choice of not going with an extra spinner in Southampton as the wicket wasn’t turning square. He explained, “In my opinion, the selection for the fourth Test was alright. The ball was turning from the footmarks outside the right-hander’s off-stump. The ball wasn’t turning at right-angles when Ali was bowling to the left-handed Pant. Jadeja’s record outside India is not great anyway and the pitch wasn’t suited for two spinners. Virat Kohli will have to talk to Ashwin about why he looks so impatient. He is bowling six different deliveries in an over. Ability-wise Moeen Ali is not better than Ashwin. Rather Ashwin is twice as good as Ali as a spinner. But Ali keeps his bowling simple. On the other hand, Ashwin keeps experimenting with the doosra, wrong’un and leg-spin rather than utilizing the rough. Sometimes in Test cricket, you have to become boring to win matches.”
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Dada concluded by stating that the support staff of the Indian team is equally responsible for the loss as he feels that along with the head coach Ravi Shastri, batting coach Sanjay Bangar need to find answers. He pointed out that Shastri and Bangar are accountable to the fact that the batting line-up is dependent on one batsman and if such problems don’t get solved than winning in South Africa, England and Australia will become impossible for India.
