Sourav Ganguly on Virat Kohli, India vs England, the impending future of Cricket, and more

Virat Kohli with Sourav Ganguly

What's the story

The Indian contingent's tour of England that will begin early next month is the first bilateral visit to the country for the team after their disastrous outing four years ago, and the players will be looking eagerly to bury their demons, as they face the English this time.

Meanwhile, former captain Sourav Ganguly has spoken up on Virat Kohli and team and he feels that Virat's move to play county games was more of a result of the panic he had, from remembering his previous experience in England, than anything else. Ganguly however, did not restrain from praising the current captain for his efforts either.

The details

“Kohli is a fantastic player. He will do well this time. I am happy that he did not play county cricket before the England series. I think he was eager to play county because he was panicky after not having a good tour last time around. He is too good a player to miss out this time,” Ganguly told PTI.

Ganguly thinks that both the captain and the team will do well in the five-Test series and believed that it will be a closely contested series.

As the conversation moved to other topics, Ganguly was also heard expressing his concerns on the health of the game in the forthcoming future. Ganguly said he was "scared" after England amassed 481 runs in an ODI against Australia at Nottingham on June 19.

For him, it was a poor advert for ODIs and cricket in general. The record score had also drawn a negative reaction from Sachin Tendukar via Twitter, as he said that bowling with two new balls in ODIs was a “recipe for disaster”. Ganguly fully concurred with his former teammate, explaining how bowling with two new balls took reverse swing out of the equation, which in turn hampered any sort of control on the run-flow in the end overs.

Upon being pressed further on the controversial subjects that held roost in the game these days, Ganguly further questioned the rotation policy followed by teams like Australia. “I don’t understand why the best bowlers play all formats. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis played ODIs and Tests all together, so did Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald. All played at the same time. I don’t understand having a separate set of bowlers for Tests and ODIs,” he said, while also reminiscing about his times.

In case you didn't know...

Indian captain Virat Kohli’s much-hyped stint at Surrey was eventually ruled out after he suffered a neck injury and was even considered a big blow for county cricket and the player alike, as the people were wary of his abilities when it came to the conditions at England.

However, in the final press-conference before departing to England earlier this week, the Indian skipper spoke about how not playing county was more of a blessing in disguise as he claimed that a break from the game had refreshed him completely. He has also moved on from what happened in England four years ago when he could only muster 134 runs in 10 Test innings at 13.40.

Kohli has been supremely successful in recent encounters in South Africa and Australia, making England one of the few territories he is yet to conquer. Kohli however, spoke of his belief on his skills, and said that he hoped to do well this time around.

What's next

India face Ireland in two T20Is on June 27th and June 29th in Ireland, prior to the England series. The squad has already reached Dublin, where the two games will be held.

Post the two games, the squad will move to England, where they will play 3 T20Is, 3ODIs and 5 Test matches, in a series that spans from July 3rd to September 11th.