Gautam Gambhir, Geoffrey Boycott, Sourav Ganguly and Other Former Cricketers Lash Out at Virat Kohli-Led Indian Test Team for Poor Performance in England

Everything that could go wrong for the Indian cricket team has gone wrong for them on the ongoing tour of England. India is 0-2 down in the five-match Test series at the moment. There seems to be no solution to their problems yet, as they have not been able to determine that too, either.

Former cricketers have lashed out on the Test team for their dismal performances in the first two Test matches, and rightly so. Except for Virat Kohli, who hasn’t had the best of outings as a captain, but has shown stupendous form with the bat in the series. As for other batsmen, they have mostly disappointed.

Former Indian spinner Bishan Singh Bedi, on his Twitter account, wrote, “Dismal Indians at Lord’s. Everyone remotely connected with Indian Cricket knows where the problem lies or stems from, but will not utter a word for want of strength of character & courage or conviction, which is even more depressing really, than the batting debacle actually!’

Read Bishan Singh Bedi’s Tweet Criticising the Indian Team:

Virender Sehwag, who is known not to mince words while speaking his mind was disappointed too. He said, “Very poor from India. While we all want to stand by our team and support them when they don’t do well, going down without a fight is very disappointing to watch. Hope they have the confidence and mental strength to come back from this.”

Read What Virender Sehwag Had to Say about India’s Performance in Test Series:

Talking to an English news daily, Gautam Gambhir said, “The way we lost the Test match was very disturbing. There was no fight shown by the Indian batters and yes the conditions were a little difficult in both the innings for them, but you don’t expect this team to bundle out in literally three days. They should have shown some fight in the second session to take the game into the final day, and anything could have happened from there on.”

Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman took to Twitter, too, to express his disappointment. On his Twitter account, he wrote, “Caught in unfavourable conditions, not reading what the opposition threw saw India lose the Lord’s Test tamely without showing a fight. Hopefully, lessons are learnt quickly, and the rest of the batsman start applying themselves going forward.”

Read what VVS Laxman had to say about India’s Performances:

Former India captain was sceptical about Indian team’s recent outings too. Sourav Ganguly said, “India just felt they had nowhere to go. It's a batting unit which has just been claustrophobic in conditions with swing and seam. It's a batting order which lacks confidence. The wicket did a bit, but poor technique and lack of confidence added to it. The last three innings of India [in England] has been very, very poor. Not enough character, not enough fight and that's the worrying factor.”

Former chief selector Sandeep Patil was angry on team India’s performance too. Patil said, “We all clearly remember captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri’s joint press conference before leaving for the tour of England earlier this summer. One bold statement stood out, ‘We have enough days to acclimatise in England, and we are going to enjoy coffee.”

And looking at how the Indian team has fared in the first two Tests Patil said, “seeing the performance of the Indian team in the first two Tests so far, the team seems to have taken their skipper’s statement seriously – they are truly only enjoying the coffee in English conditions.”

Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott, in his column for the Daily Telegraph, wrote, “So far, the Indian players have let their supporters down. The batting has been so naive and irresponsible; it has bordered on stupidity. Wafting drives at tempting outswingers is thoughtless.”

The Indian team are in a spot of bother at the moment and surely knows that this is not how the number one ranked team performs. With criticism coming in from all quarters for the Virat Kohli-led team and Head Coach Ravi Shastri, the bunch of talented players would love to silence them in the remaining Test matches.

The third match between India and England will begin on August 18. Stay tuned with us for all the latest updates on India vs England 2018 Test Series here!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 16, 2018 04:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).