Former India cricketer Kris Srikkanth has lambasted the Indian side ahead of the second Test match of 2024. India are playing their final Test match of the South Africa series and would hope to win it so they can eke out a draw against their opponents. In the first Test, India fell to an innings defeat in Centurion.
Srikkanth, while speaking on his YouTube channel slammed the Indian team and called it an overrated side in Test cricket. Srikkanth argued that several cricketers playing in the Test team have underperformed in the recent past and the deserving candidates, like Kuldeep Yadav, were not getting their chances.
“In T20 cricket India are highly over-rated. ODI cricket, we are a fantastic team. What happens in ODis, in the semi-finals, finals, it’s just a one-off match. It’s a luck factor, a lot depends on luck in these matches. I read Rohit Sharma’s statement, for a cricketer, the 50-over World Cup is a huge achievement. We are sometimes underperforming in the knockout matches, int he semi-finals and the final. But we are a gun side in ODI. Regardless of where we play, be it India, Australia or South Africa, we are a gun side,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
The former cricketer said that India were good during the 2-4 year period of Virat Kohli’s captaincy, but since then have only been living on the reputation of past laurels.
“Test cricket, we are over-rated. We have to make sure… I think it was a phase of 2-3 years… when Virat Kohli was the captain of the team, we were outstanding. We dominated in England, we fought hard in South Africa, we won in Australia. We had a good phase for 2-4 years. Yes, we were dominating in England, in Australia,” Srikkanth said.
India finished 2023 as the top team in all formats of the game but did not win any ICC tournaments. India lost World Test Championship 2023 Final and the ODI World Cup Final against Australia. The only trophy that India were able to win 2023 was the Asia Cup 2023.
Srikkanth said that it is time for India to forget about the ICC rankings. Srikkanth argued that several India players are overrated and quality players are sitting outside of the Test team.
“We have to forget ICC ranking. We are always 1-2, 1-2. It’s a combination of having over-rated cricketers and people who have not performed up to their potential. Or there are players who have not enough chances like Kuldeeep (Yadav),” Srikkanth said.
