Former India left-arm spinner and commentator Venkatapathy Raju on Friday (July 16) said he was really surprised with Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s “second-string Indian side” comment, saying he was stunned to hear the word “second-string” from such a great cricketer.
As India’s regular captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri are in England for a Test series, the BCCI sent a young Indian team led by Shikhar Dhawan with Rahul Dravid as head coach to Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series comprising three ODIs and as many as T20Is starting on July 18 in Colombo.
With Ranatunga calling it an insult to host a second-string Indian team, Raju said Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain’s comments were “unwanted” and instead of making such comments, he should have been happy that Team India is touring Sri Lanka in these tough times of COVID-19 pandemic.
Raju told Hindustan Times: “I’m not a firm believer of this word ‘second-string’. They are all aspiring cricketers; you can’t really call them second-string. That’s where Ranatunga went wrong. He should not have said second-string. That was an unwanted comment from such a great cricketer.”
The former spinner further added, “He should have been happy that a team is coming and touring Sri Lanka during these tough times. Sri Lanka is also trying to form a team, try youngsters for the T20 World Cup. So, I was a little surprised that such a senior and great cricketer would refer to this Indian side as a second string. People are waiting for cricket to happen.”
On being asked if the young Indian team will be more eager to prove Ranatunga wrong in the upcoming limited-overs series after his second-string comment, the commentator said the players are professional enough not to let these comments bother them.
He further added, “If that’s the case (India being more motivated after the second-string comment), we want him to make these statements more. No, but I think these guys are professional enough. The Sri Lanka cricket team itself is struggling.”
Raja also said that India will start as favorites against Sri Lanka as the tourists have a balanced squad having Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the ranks, but warned them not to take the hosts lightly as the white-ball format is so unpredictable.
He signed off by saying, “If you look at the Indian side, it is well balanced. They have been together for a long time. All these guys are aspiring to be a part of the T20 World Cup squad and Sri Lanka we’ve seen are struggling with their own issues. So India definitely start as favorites. Then again white-ball cricket is always unpredictable. If you take a team lightly, anything can happen. Recently we saw Ireland beating South Africa.”
(Hindustan Times inputs)
