Sourav Ganguly to Harbhajan Singh, how cricket legends reacted to WTC debacle

After the WTC debacle, the Test squad of Team India will also gear up for major changes and skipper Rohit Sharma also hinted at that. “There are many players doing well in domestic cricket, it is all about finding the players, giving them that space. That will be our focus going forward,” he said.

Team India’s WTC debacle: Here’s how the cricket legends reacted

Sunil Gavaskar was visibly angry about Virat Kohli’s ‘bad shot’ selection during the second innings of the WTC 2023 Final. Virat Kohli must have played a big inning in the WTC 2023 Final, but his shot selections were nowhere near the big innings, Gavaskar said.

“It was a bad shot, I mean you should ask Virat Kohli, what shot he played because that was shot outside the off-stump. We talk so much about the fact you know when you are going to win a match, you need a long inning, a century plus innings to win, but how will you get to a century plus innings if you play shots so far outside the off-stumps,” Sunil Gavaskar said.

Sunil Gavaskar also made some references to the upcoming India-West Indies series.

“You cannot brush this under the carpet like ‘yeah we have got two matches against West Indies’. West Indies are not the best team in the world. You just go and hammer them 2-0, 3-0, whatever the matches are. This doesn’t mean anything because when you come across and if you go to the finals and if you are playing Australia again, making the same mistakes, then how would you win the trophy?” he added.

Sourav Ganguly said only Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have won five IPL titles and he has his faith in Rohit Sharma.

“At that time, Rohit Sharma looked the best alternate. He’s won five IPLs. Whenever he had been handed the opportunity to captain, like in the Asia Cup, he won. He was the best option. He’s led the team in the WTC Final as well this time around, even though we lost. We reached the World Cup semifinal, even though we didn’t play well. Before that (2021) we hadn’t even qualified (for the knockouts). I have my faith in Rohit. Only he and MS Dhoni have won the IPL five times. No one else,” Sourav Ganguly told Sports Tak.

Harbhajan Singh talked about “fake confidence” and said Team India has to develop the habit of working hard for five days.

“You cannot give yourself that fake confidence after playing and winning matches on bad pitches where the ball starts spinning from ball one. You will have to develop a habit of working hard for five days. Only then you will find yourself prepared better for these big matches. Fast bowlers do not get to bowl much on these pitches, spinners are used right from the first over. There are a lot of things we should rectify,” said Harbhajan Singh on Star Sports after the match.

Updated: 13 Jun 2023, 04:16 PM IST