World Cup 2019: Sourav Ganguly lashes out at MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav for their lack of intent against England

What's the story?

Former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly lashed out at Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav after the duo failed to show any sort of intent in their World Cup defeat against the hosts England in Birmingham.

In case you didn't know..

After going unbeaten for the first six games at the 2019 Cricket World Cup, India succumbed to their first defeat of the tournament against England at Edgbaston. A stellar opening partnership from Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow and was followed by Ben Stokes' superb batting exploits. This helped the hosts to mount a solid total of 337 on the scoreboard.

During the chase, India lost their first wicket very early as KL Rahul departed for a duck. However, the Men in Blue had a rather slow start to the run-chase and Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma kept the scoreboard ticking. While the former scored his fifth successive fifty in the World Cup, the latter scored yet another ton to hand India a firm grip on the match.

However, following the departures of both the set batsmen, the two-time World Cup winners started from scratch as Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant started taking risks to get on par with the required run-rate.

By the end of the 40th over, it seemed like it was India's match to lose. However, England's bowling and fielding ensured that they stayed alive in the competition as they handed India their first defeat of the campaign. Both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav failed to show intent and were restricted to just singles and doubles in the latter stages of the match.

The heart of the matter

Speaking in the commentary box, Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly lashed out at the Indian side after the lack of intent displayed by them:

"I am completely baffled. What’s going on! This is not what India needed. They need runs. What are they doing? Some Indian fans are leaving now. Surely they must want to see Dhoni go for his shots, even if he slogs it off in the air. It's a World Cup game, top 2 sides, give it a go! Indian fans would want their side to do a little bit more. They want their side to go down with a fight. Risk it to win it," said Hussain.

"I don't have an explanation for that. You asked me the question but I can't explain these singles. It's also the length and the bounce that has deceived the Indian batsmen. You can't be chasing 338 and still have 5 wickets in the end. It's about mindset and the way you look at the game. The message had to be clear: no matter where it comes and no matter where the ball lands you have to find the boundary. A dot ball at this stage!" said Ganguly." replied Ganguly.

After the match ended, Ganguly continued:

"The first 10 overs and the last 6 overs left a lot to be desired. Hopefully, they will go back and reflect because they have been in excellent form this WC. The intent was not good enough. I would have been happier if India were 300 all-out. This situation can happen again and they will have to find different ways to succeed in the first and last 10 overs,"

What's next?

Virat Kohli and co. will look to return to the winning ways as they face Bangladesh in their next fixture on Tuesday.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on World Cup schedule, news, points table, live scores, most runs, World Cup most wickets and fantasy tips.