Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly criticized Indian batters after series loss against Australia. The home team won the Sydney Test by six wickets at the SCG on Sunday to register a 3-1 series win and regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy after a long decade wait.
India’s batting woes were palpable throughout the series as the visitors could only breach the 200-run mark on three occasions in nine innings. Barring Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, Indian batters failed to deliver consistently against Australia.
The likes of Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma could not deliver consistently in the five match Test series against Australia.
“We did not bat well; we have to bat well in Test cricket. If you do not bat well, you will not win Test matches. If you score 170, 180, you cannot win Test matches. You have to score 350-400,” Ganguly said on India Today.
Ganguly noted that India failed to come up with a collective batting effort throughout the series.
“No one can be blamed. Everyone has to score runs,” he added.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli could only aggregate 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75 against Australia. In nine innings, Kohli was dismissed caught behind on eight occasions in the series and Ganguly backed the veteran to put paid to his perennial problem of fishing out the off-stump.
“I don’t understand. He is such a great player. But I am sure he will overcome this problem,” Ganguly said in the same interview.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also could not lead from the front as he managed only 31 runs in five innings on the Australian tour at an average of 6.20.
India will next take on England in five T20Is and three ODIs at home.
