Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly seems to unamused with South Africa's playing XI. He thinks Proteas have struggled to get their playing XI correct in the ODI series, and their poor team management caused them to lose the series 5-1 to India.
India sealed their first bilateral series win in South Africa after the hosts found their main players missing due to injury. Skipper Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers had to deal with injury issues and India ran away with the trophy.
Writing in his column for Times of India, Ganguly observed South Africa have been poor with the team change. "Yes, a team makes changes when it loses but the changes have not made sense for South Africa," Ganguly wrote. "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’."
While David Miller is in the T20I series that begins from Sunday, pacer Kagiso Rabada, who has been one of their top-performers, has been excluded from the squad.
"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.
Ganguly was happy with Virat Kohli and the way the team made a comeback after Test series defeat. "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," he wrote.
The president of Bengal Cricket Association, Ganguly also feels that India is set to continue their dominance in shortest format as well. "India proved themselves to be the superior one-day side they are, and I am sure they will continue to do so in the upcoming three-match T20 series. There is a distinct possibility that they will finish off this South Africa tour on a high. Of course, one understands that the shorter the format, the difference between the two sides reduces, but this South African unit will have to raise their standards immensely to compete with this Indian side," he signed off.
