Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has felt unimpressed with Virat Kohli’s captaincy, while Indian experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has felt disappointed on the off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s performances in the ongoing Test series in England. Also, the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin didn’t like the approaches of Indian batsmen.
Prior to the fifth and last Test of the five-match Test series between the hosts England and the visitors India, England has secured the home Test series by leading it 3-1.
Gavaskar is unhappy with the captaincy of Virat Kohli and expects some questions will be asked about his captaincy.
The legendary Indian batsman told India Today, “When Virat took over 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. Not that being calm, cool and collected means that you are not passionate about winning but here was a person who had a completely different approach and outlook to the game.
“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.”
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However, Gavaskar has highly impressed on Kohli’s batting, who has scored a total of 922 runs on this UK tour, including scoring 544 runs in the ongoing Test series in England.
Gavaskar 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.”
Meanwhile, the 38-year-old Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has felt disappointed on the off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s performances in the Southampton Test. Where the English off-spinner Moeen Ali got nine wickets in this game, Ashwin was lesser effective with the ball and managed only three wickets in the full game.
Harbhajan said on that, “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. 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.
“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.”
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On the other hand, the former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin feels that India could have done well in this Test series if the batsmen took more responsibilities.
Azharuddin told Times of India, “Technically, our batsmen were found wanting. We didn’t play the moving ball well. We can’t depend only on Virat Kohli. Openers like Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul too didn’t get runs. The middle-order was left with too much to do. We should have taken at least a 100-run lead after Cheteshwar Pujara’s hundred (in the first innings of the fourth Test).
“We could have done better. This was our best chance to win the series because we had the best bowling attack and in every game, they got those 20 wickets and gave our team a chance to throttle the opposition.”
