Would like Virat Kohli to focus on winning big tournaments, says Sourav Ganguly
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Veteran Indian Captain and BCCI’s president-elect Sourav Ganguly has adviced Virat Kohli to focus on winning ICC tournaments and has assured to give the help that the captain needs. India have gone through seven consecutive ICC tournaments without a win with the last being the 2013 Champions Trophy.
BCCI have their next President in the form of the veteran Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. This has ushered in a new era where BCCI will become a strong board again and the Bengal Tiger has already made promises of improving the condition of first-class cricket and bringing normalcy to the administration of BCCI.
Having always been a big fan of Indian captain Virat Kohli, Ganguly now has some advice or two for the Indian skipper that could really help the Indian team in a long way and believes that Kohli must focus on winning ICC tournaments, with the T20 World Cup only a year away.
"My only thing is that they need to win big tournaments. They are not going to win every time but they have gone through seven tournaments without winning one," Ganguly told reporters at the Eden Gardens on his arrival to the Kolkata from Mumbai, reported TOI.
Ganguly had full faith that India could have won the 2019 World Cup, which they agonizingly lost in the semi-final against the Kiwis. He believes that there are some problems which need to be addressed and that these problems cannot be addressed just by discussions in the drawing-room and that more serious insights are required to understand the root of the failure.
"They are a much better side than that. That is an area they need to get ready mentally. Talent is enormous. We reached the World Cup semis. That's an issue which Virat needs to address. It doesn't happen in the boardroom," said Dada.
When asked whether back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021 shows that T20 cricket is over-powering 50-over cricket, Dada replied that times have changed and since more people attend T20 matches and that the ICC is following the trend by respecting the change.
"Times have changed. We will have to respect that. When Champions Trophy came in, I was captain that time and it was a huge tournament. With the advent of T20, people come in more for T20 games and the ICC is going by that," he said.
Ganguly had heaps of praises for 34-year-old wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha because of his excellent glovework in the second Test at Pune, but also believes that wicket keepers these days need to score runs with the bat too. With the likes of Rishabh Pant having scored test centuries in England and Australia waiting in the wings and Sanju Samson stringing amazing performances in domestic cricket, Saha will have to score more runs to continue being picked as the first-choice keeper.
"I am extremely happy that he plays for the country and does it so well behind the stumps. But my suggestion for him is that in front of the stumps also he has to score a lot more runs. His wicketkeeping will never be doubted. If he has to play 100 Test matches he will have to score a lot more runs," he signed off.
