Everyone has to chip in with runs if you want to win Tests: Sourav Ganguly

He is not known to hold back his opinion and former India captain Sourav Ganguly has been critical of the players while articulating his take on India’s 31-run defeat to England in the first Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham. According to Ganguly, it was the failure of India’s batters apart from Virat Kohli that resulted in their failure to get over the line in the opening match of the high-octane series.

Ganguly said had captain Kohli not scored his runs, India would have been out of the match on the second day itself. Virat’s 149 off 25 balls kept the visitors in the game and they conceded a lead of just 13 runs in the first innings. They had slipped to 100 for 5 after a half-century partnership between the openers in reply to England’s 287.

Everyone has to score

“If you have to win a Test then everyone has to score runs. The other batsmen have to score hundreds as well. Virat played very well otherwise India would have been out of the match on the second day itself,” Ganguly, 46, said while talking on India TV.

The former captain, who led India to a 1-1 draw in a Test series in England in 2002 and is one of those few Indian captains not to have lost a series on English soil, however, kept faith on the team’s ability to come back in the series despite being 1-0 down.

“This was the first Test in a five-match series and I think this team has the capability to come back and play well. Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay will have to show some determination since they have scored runs in these conditions before,” he said.

Ganguly, who led India to 21 Test wins in 49 Tests (Kohli also has 21 wins as captain now), defended the current skipper after the team’s loss and advised him to give more time to the batsmen to settle and not to drop them too early.

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