Former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly has come out and said that head coach Ravi Shastri should be held accountable for the reasons behind India's another overseas series defeat in England. Having already lost at Edgbaston and Lord's and now, at Southampton by 60 runs, India went irrecoverably down 3-1 in the series and as a result, have come second in their tussle against one of the weakest England sides ever.
Right when it mattered the most, India seems to be short of either a batsman or a bowler that can see them though. It was eventually England's greater overall depth that prevailed. Though, people like Sourav, believe that there are much deeper issues with India's game in overseas conditions. Failure of their premier spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, with everything going his way on Day 3, to come to the fore, an example.
"Regarding Ravi Shastri, he has to be held accountable for the results along with Sanjay Bangar regarding why only one batsman is performing whereas others seem to have taken backward steps.", said "Dada" as he is fondly called, "Unless these questions are answered an overseas series win in the three countries looks impossible for India,"
"This batting lineup hasn't been making runs for a long time now. If you look at India's overseas performances from 2011 until now, they have lost every big series. When Virat Kohli is at the crease it seems that he is playing against totally different bowlers as compared to when the other batsmen are batting. I believe that the batting ability of the current players has gone down." he further told India TV.
"There are a lot of reasons for this. Firstly, the players are short of confidence, whether you look at (Cheteshwar) Pujara or (Ajinkya) Rahane, you'll find that four years ago, the latter was matching Kohli shot-by-shot in Adelaide which is not the case at the moment. The same goes for Pujara too"
Sourav also reiterated the major theory why Moeen Ali, who bagged 9/134 and made the crucial difference, is so successful against India in England by saying, "The primary reason why Moeen bowls so well against India in England is that there is continuous pressure being applied by (James) Anderson and Co. from the other end. So Moeen gets wickets because batsmen feel that they can release that pressure against him. But when the same Moeen comes to India and realises that he has to be the chief wicket-taker, he is a different bowler altogether."
Talking about Indian Captain Virat Kohli's reaction to his side's loss, Ganguly said, "I can understand why Virat Kohli is saying what he is saying in the press conference because you still have to sound positive in such situations. But in the last 7 away Tests, India has lost five. Agreed that the Southampton Test was a close contest, but after Kohli got out the commentators started saying that India will lose the match. That is what happened and has been happening for quite some time now, match after match, innings after innings. Just taking 20 wickets won't win you matches, you have to score runs as well,"
