Sourav Ganguly's unsent message to Virat Kohli that could have helped India win the Perth Test

Team India lost the second Test to Australia by a margin of 146 runs. Even though the bowlers were decent enough, the batsmen couldn’t deliver and the series is now levelled at 1-1. Just a day after the loss, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly revealed a message that he wanted to send to Virat Kohli. As per the 46-year-old, this could have helped India beat the hosts.

Sourav seemed to be extremely disappointed with the batsmen’s failure in dealing with Nathan Lyon. He wasn’t happy with India’s struggles against spin outside the subcontinent. The off-spinner has picked up 17 wickets in the series thus far and seems to be the biggest threat for the visitors moving forward.

The message from Sourav Ganguly

“I had thought of sending a text to Kohli but I haven’t done it yet. I wanted to tell him that you shouldn’t give so many wickets to spinners outside the subcontinent. There is no doubt that Nathan Lyon is a great spinner but so were Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Swann.

“They have shown him too much respect by defending a lot of deliveries outside the off-stump. Instead, I feel they should attack him more and look to build towards at least a total in excess of 300-350,” said Dada on IndiaTV’s show ‘Cricket Ki Baat’.

The 113-Test veteran also lashed out at the Indian top-order batsmen. Barring Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, he said no one else applied themselves well. He mentioned that the batsmen will have to do a lot better if India is to win.

“For all of India’s top order batsmen, this is not their first tour to Australia. They have been there before. Logically their game should improve over the years but from what we saw in Perth, it is difficult to say it has. Barring Kohli and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, none of them are making a lot of runs and this is not good for the team. If India have to win, they will have to do a lot more,” Ganguly added.

He defended Umesh Yadav and put the entire blame on the batsmen. He also raised questions about the coaching staff. “Head coach Ravi Shastri and batting coach Sanjay Bangar must answer for India’s repeated batting failures outside the sub-continent,” he signed off saying.

[interaction id=”5c162a0c08b5341855788419″]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from Australia vs India series, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.