‘There probably has not been one stand out Indian cricket team in the country’s history of being a Test match nation since 1932. There have been though several teams who have had brilliant moments of their own multiple times.’
‘There was the Ajit Wadekar-lead unit in the 1970s, there was the era in the 1980s when the team was led by Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. There was the team in the 2000s under Sourav Ganguly and now there is the current team under Virat Kohli.’
Team India has successfully passed the first Test and won the match against Sri Lanka by 304 runs at Galle. The team even wrapped up the match in just 4 days and took the lead 1-0 in the 3-match series. It looks that India will win the second Test as well. If team India could do this, it would become a special and historic win as it was India’s first Test series win in Sri Lanka since 1993.
After the first Test, India head coach Ravi Shastri made some comments regarding the team by comparing them with the previous Indian Test teams. Ravi Shastri said:
“This team has been there with each other for two years and they are much more experienced now. They have already done things a lot of Indian teams and a lot of big names could not do in their careers.”
And then he compared this team to all previous Indian teams: “There have been a lot of big names who have played for 20 years, they have come to Sri Lanka many times and never won a series. This team is used to doing things a lot of other teams have not done.”
Sourav Ganguly’s Take:
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has given his best wishes to Indian coach Ravi Shastri for his coaching stint with Team India. After Shastri had proclaimed that his team had the potential of becoming the best team ever, Ganguly refrained from commenting on Shastri’s proclamation.
“To be honest, I don’t have much to say on this. Wish him all the best. Given him a job to do till the World Cup in 2019 and hopefully, he will get the Cup and does the job,” Ganguly told. Ganguly, however, reminded that it was under his captaincy that India won series in Pakistan for the first time in 15 years.
“You’re forgetting the win in Pakistan for the first time in Pakistan in 15 years. Also the win in England in 2007. Won’t go into comparisons. Wish him all the best. Want the team to do well and hopefully he will do well in the years to come,” he added.
If India wins one of the remaining two matches then it will be India’s eighth consecutive Test series victory under Kohli. Praising the current captain, Sourav Ganguly accepted that he admires Virat Kohli and he has improved a lot as the captain.
“Virat has improved immensely as a captain. He got the ingredients of a good captain. He’s hungry, he’s himself a remarkable player. I like to sit on the sofa and watch him on TV. He got the ability and there’s no doubt about it.”
Ganguly also pointed out that Sri Lanka faces a herculean task against the rampaging Indian team.
“They (Sri Lanka) have to play well to compete against this team. They were down and out against Zimbabwe but somehow they managed to win. They got hammered in the first. It’s going to be a Herculean task. Sri Lanka will have to do things out of the box and see if they can compete with India,” he said.
Even though Sourav Ganguly has wished Ravi Shastri for his job as Team India’s head coach, Dada’s wish is an indirect reminder for the coach that previous Indian cricket teams were no less than the current ones.