With India’s tour of South Africa round the corner, Sourav Ganguly prefers a wait-and-watch approach to find out whether the home-grown pace bowlers were capable of doing a good job.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Delhi-Bengal Ranji Trophy semifinals here on Monday, Ganguly was convinced that the trio of Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had the pace to rattle the opposition but said, “let’s wait.”
“If the batsmen can put the runs on the board, this attack can get (20) wickets,” Ganguly said.
Happy with the form of Bhuvaneshwar, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma, the former India captain advocated employing an extra pace-bowler on a flat pitch and an extra batsman on a green-top surface. He appeared in favour of Hardik Pandya being a viable option as a man with all-round abilities.
“Unless you give him (Pandya) a chance, how would you know?” he said.
Asked whether the form of Ajinkya Rahane bothered him, Ganguly backed the Mumbai batsman whose score in the last five Test innings read as 4, 0, 2, 1, 10, and said, “Rahane is a quality player.” He was quick to add that the quartet of M. Vijay, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane were going to South Africa as “better players.”
