Sourav Ganguly & Virender Sehwag Believe India Ready For First Test Despite Unimpressive Show Against Essex

Former India batsmen Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag insist that India are ready for the first Test against England despite not being at their best in the three-day warm-up game.

Essex made India toil hard in their only warm-up game. The defending county championship champions also gave some warning signals to the tourists who are looking to win their first Test series in England since 2007. Essex’s bowlers made light work of India’s top order in both the innings while their batsmen gave the Indian team-management a lot to ponder on the bowling plans.

India were all out for 395 in the first innings. Essex then made Indian bowlers and fielders work hard in sunny conditions before declaring their innings 359/8. The Indian top order got a chance of batting for a second time but Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara failed again.

The performance must have given the Indian team-management a lot to worry about. However, Ganguly and Sehwag feel that the the warm-up game would not affect India’s mindset.

“India are prepared for the challenge. A confident team like India shouldn’t decide its playing XI on the basis of performances in the practice match,” Ganguly told IndiaTV.

Sehwag also backed Ganguly by saying:

“India are ready for the first Test. However, one confusion remains: whether they are going to play two fast bowlers, one all-rounder and two spinners or three fast bowlers, one all-rounder in Hardik Pandya and one spinner. The decision will depend on the playing conditions.”

One of the worries for the team-management would be to decide who opens with Murali Vijay. Dhawan bagged a pair against Essex and lasted just four balls across two innings. His latest failure has reignited the debate on whether KL Rahul should replace Dhawan at the top of the order. Rahul impressed in the game, scoring 58 and 36 not out.

And Ganguly did not beat around the bush while backing Rahul to open with Vijay.

“Dhawan’s history on overseas pitches hasn’t been very impressive. He goes overseas, fails to perform and gets dropped after a few Test matches. He has played amazing cricket in the subcontinent and recently scored a century against Afghanistan before lunch. Rahul, on the other hand, has scored a hundred in Australia, played well in South Africa and West Indies too. I like him technically and he has been successful overseas. I’ll be surprised if India choose not to open with Murali Vijay and Rahul in the first Test,” said Ganguly.

On the other hand, Pujara who wasn’t able to leave any sort of impact against Essex, should come good in the Tests despite being in poor nick according to the two India veterans.

“Pujara is not in good form. He recently played county cricket and his average was just 13-14. However, in his last Test at the Wanderers, where India won the third Test, he scored a fifty. He has a century in South Africa to his name. He hasn’t been up to the mark in England, but has played better than Dhawan in countries like South Africa, West Indies and England,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly and Sehwag further backed Virat Kohli to make amends for his poor show on the previous tour. In 2014, Kohli had managed to score only 135 runs in 10 innings.

“We hope for a century from Virat Kohli this time as he failed to put up an impressive show in 2014. However, he has changed a lot since then. It’s hard to imagine Kohli not performing in a lengthy five-match Test series. England’s batting is weak at the moment as we saw Pakistan defeat them in the first Test. India have the best chance to win the series this time,” said Ganguly.

“He made two fifties in ODIs and made 70 runs in the practice match. Seeing his current form, I hope he scores at least two hundreds in ten innings of the five-match Test series. India will have to match the first innings total of England if they want to win the first Test,” said Sehwag.

The five-match Test series starts in Birmingham on August 1.