Team India became a lot more resilient under Ganguly: Anil Kumble

While Anil Kumble serves as the coach for the Indian cricket team at the moment, he was very much a part of the renaissance of the Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.

Speaking at an event in Kolkata after the first day’s play, Kumble heaped a ton of praise on Sourav Ganguly stating that the attitude of the Indian cricket team changed under Ganguly quite drastically.

Since Ganguly’s drop from the side in late 2006, Kumble took over the test captaincy, a role he would continue for the following year prior to announcing his retirement in 2008 at Delhi.

“Our generation became a lot more resilient after going through different challenges. The Kolkata Test (2001) changed our mindset and the Headingley Test (2002) was probably when we thought we could win abroad.

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Kumble singled out the Perth victory in 2008, something that was played in the backdrop of some massive controversies in the previous Test match in Sydney. “The Perth (2008) victory was remarkable and then never we looked back,” said Kumble on Friday.

Showering praise on Sehwag, Ganguly said, “He changed the batting mindset of people around the world. If you see today’s era, if cricketers don’t get runs quickly there is criticism. It all started with guys like Sehwag, (Matthew) Hayden and maybe (Justin) Langer to an extent. Maybe Gilchrist in one-day cricket ODIs.”

Virender Sehwag also went on to say, “Mindset is important. Cricket has not changed but it’s the mindset that has. I never had fear of losing my place as my captain would tell me just go out there and play freely. A captain played a big role, be it Sourav, Kumble or M.S. Dhoni. Every successful player has an equally great captain behind him.”

Kapil Dev said he “never thought we could reach the pinnacle of Test cricket so quickly. After 200 (Tests) we never looked back.” Kapil said the mindset of the players was different in the past. “In the 1970s and 1980s, we did not have the right mindset. Things started moving and cricket kept on changing from the Sunil Gavaskar era.

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