I find it hard to understand some of the SA selections, says Sourav Ganguly

I find it hard to understand some of the SA selections, says Sourav Ganguly

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Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly says that some of the South African selections have taken him by surprise as he opined that ‘The South African team changes have not made sense’. Ganguly went on to underline skipper Virat Kohli as the major difference between the two sides.

The Indian squad led by skipper Virat Kohli ran riot in South Africa over the past couple of weeks as they bounced back from a narrow Test series defeat to demolish the home team by a scoreline of 5-1 in the six-match ODI series. With star batsman AB de Villiers missing the start of the ODI series and skipper Faf du Plessis being ruled out after hurting his finger, a make-do South African batting order found it difficult to negotiate the Indian bowlers, especially the wrist-spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was left confused by the South African selection strategy for the subsequent T20I series as he claimed in his column for TOI, saying that ‘The South African selections did not make sense’.

 "Yes, a team makes changes when it loses but the changes have not made sense for South Africa. It will be a completely new set of players and looking at the importance of the series, I find it hard to understand some of the selections. A tour by India is always special to any country and the South Africans have surprised with some ‘non-selection’," Ganguly wrote.

The exclusion of SA batsman David Miller from the final ODI and the removal of pacer Kagiso Rabada from the T20 squad further left Ganguly scratching his head as to what is happening in the South African dugout.

"The exclusion of David Miller in the last ODI itself was surprising, as is the omission of Kagiso Rabada from the T20 squad. JP Duminy will be leading in the T20 format but was not included in the final one-dayer while Tabraiz Shamsi, who bowled well at Port Elizabeth, was replaced by Imran Tahir in the last game," he wrote.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli overtook Ganguly in the list of the most centuries scored by a captain, reaching a tally of 13 compared to Ganguly’s 11. Ganguly was all praise for the 29-year-old Delhite and admits that he was the difference between the two sides.

"After losing the Test Series, India were super dominant in the ODIs against South Africa and it has been such a pleasure to see Virat Kohli bat the way he has in the 5-1 win. He was the major difference between the two sides and what stands out for me is the way he batted even in the dead rubber," Ganguly added.

South Africa squad: JP Duminy (captain), Farhaan Behardien, Junior Dala, AB de Villiers, Reeza Hendricks, Christiaan Jonker, Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), David Miller, Chris Morris, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Jon-Jon Smuts.

AB de Villiers or Virat Kohli - who will score more runs?

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