Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has backed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to lead Team India till the 2015 World Cup at least. The World Cup is slated to take place in Australia-New Zealand, with Team India opening its campaign against Pakistan at Adelaide Oval.
India’s performance in the overseas series has been below par lately but Ganguly rubbishes any suggestions of a split captaincy in the Indian team. “Not till the World Cup,” Ganguly said. “We will see after that how India does.”
Before defending the title in the World Cup, India will play a four-match Test series and a limited-overs tri-series in Australia. When Team India last toured the Trans-Tasman nation they were hammered 4-0 in the Tests.
Australia thrashed the MS Dhoni-led team India when they last played a Test series Down Under. India’s record in the longest version of the game is below par and Ganguly feels that the visitors need to play out of their skins in the forthcoming tour.
“It is going to be a tough tour,” Ganguly “India will really have to play well to compete with Australia and I hope they do because for me the strength and weakness of Indian cricket is how they play overseas.”
Ganguly also defended Virat Kohli, who is struggling with the bat, and insisted it happens to the best of batsmen. Kohli, however, was among runs in the second ODI, which India won handsomely, by scoring a half-century, but he was far from his best.
“He is just going through a phase where he is struggling with his form and it happens to everyone,” the former captain said. “You play for a period of time and you hit these patches and he has hit a patch from which he will come out.”
“If there is a technical issue, I am sure he will sort it out,” he added. “It happens to various players in various times of their careers. For me, he is a class act. Look at the amount of runs he has scored in the last four years and you cannot be ordinary and score all those runs for four years.”
