Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra believes that the Indian cricket team is lacking a core group and that’s something the national team management needs to properly manage to reach anywhere near the likes of Australia.
Talking to former India opener Aakash Chopra on his famous talk show – “Aakashvani” on Tuesday (May 4), Nehra believes that Indian team management shouldn't confuse themselves and stick to the players they have believed in by backing them for a longer time, hinting at the players like Rishabh Pant.
Nehra said on the show, “This Indian team is far from the Australia team. You are talking about an Australian team which won 3 consecutive World Cups, reached in the final in 1996, won 18-19 Test matches in home and away conditions. It's not like this Indian team can’t reach there but I believe the core group is very important. A person gets confused after watching many dishes on the table and so it's important to have fewer but better dishes.”
He also commented on the young wicketkeeper-batsman Pant, who was recently replaced by KL Rahul in national limited-overs XI after his inconsistent and poor performances with the bat and behind the wickets despite being seen as the unchallenged successor of Indian legend MS Dhoni.
Nehra admitted that the left-hander missed a lot of chances but feels he should be backed by the management for a longer duration.
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The former pacer further added, “There are a lot of talented players but they should be backed for a longer duration. Today also when we talk about the number 5 and 6 slots in the Indian ODI side, then we are not sure about it. KL Rahul is playing on the 5th position and Pant, the person you were preparing to succeed MS Dhoni, is serving water. I know he has missed his chances and there is no doubt about it but then you have kept him in the team because you saw the potential in him at 22-23 years.”
On the recent debate on banning the use of saliva to shine the balls, Nehra said: “Will they give vaseline to the umpires and tell bowlers that you can use 1kg of vaseline in 90 overs?”
Nehra was not also pleased with captain Virat Kohli's comment that ODI cricket was not important this year after India suffered a 0-3 drubbing in New Zealand as T20 World Cup scheduled later this year.
He signed off by saying, “If you win and tell this it's a different thing. It's wrong to say that the year is for T20s and so we don't care about 50-over matches...if it doesn't matter then why did you even come to play. Are you trying to tell that the Indian team didn't try to win those ODI matches against New Zealand? I don't agree with Virat Kohli's statement.”
(With India Today Inputs)
