Sourav Ganguly feels cricket coaches must allow captains to run the show

09/26/2018

Sourav Ganguly has stated that cricket coaches must allow the captains to handle a game while observing from the back seat. He has also added that he backed players like Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh because of the way they acted under pressure and advised Virat Kohli to work on that aspect.

In the recently concluded series against England, India's performance had been less than impressive, especially in the five-match Test series against England. India lost the Tests at Edgbaston, Lord's, Southampton, and The Oval, conceding the series to England 4-1.

Though Indian bowlers managed to put up an efficient display, Indian batsmen failed to achieve anything significant throughout the series. Virat Kohli was the only consistent Indian batsmen, having scored more than 500 runs in the series. With the results, a lot of questions were raised on the head coach of Indian team Ravi Shastri, who had claimed at the time of admission that India can be one of the best travelling teams.

Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag had lashed out on Shastri with Sehwag stating that teams need to perform in order to deserve the best title. In an event at Symbiosis International, Ganguly participated in the panel discussion along with Bhattacharya, where he shared that coaches must allow cricket captains to run the show.

“It is not like football. A lot of current cricket coaches think that they are going to run a cricket team like a football team, but cricket is a captain's game and coach has to take a back seat and that is important," Ganguly told PTI.

In the past, players like Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Yuvraj Singh have mentioned that they are indebted to Ganguly for shaping their careers. Ganguly said that he backed them as they had the capability to perform under pressure. He advised Indian skipper Virat Kohli to work on this aspect.

“Virat (Kohli) needs to work little on it. I backed them because I saw them closely, I have seen them how they react to pressure,” he said.