Ganguly, Kohli & Shastri must continue good work: Sachin Tendulkar

Ganguly, Kohli & Shastri must continue good work: Sachin Tendulkar

Kolkata: India is set to play their maiden Day-Night Test at the historic Eden Gardens starting Friday and one man who played a crucial rule in convincing skipper Virat Kohli to agree to play a pink-ball Test against Bangladesh is none other than current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly. While he spoke of the need to rejuvenate Test match cricket, another man who has been vocal about bringing radical changes to engage fans in the gentleman's game is Sachin Tendulkar.

Speaking to IANS on the eve of the pink ball Test, Tendulkar spoke about not just the idea of India playing their maiden Day-Night Test, but also about the need to bring in some changes across formats to help make it more competitive and engage the crowds.

While the team of Kohli and Shastri have already made giant strides in making this Indian team one of the best in the world, Ganguly's addition has only cemented the base further as India looks to dominate world cricket. And Tendulkar feels that the three must keep doing the good work to help Indian cricket move forward.

"I think we are in a good position right now. I feel at this stage, without disrespecting anyone, there are very few teams that are actually competing well with us. Very few teams and I am not looking to disrespect anyone. So, these three guys if they continue to do exactly what they are doing, cricket is already moving forward," he pointed.

While Ganguly has already ensured India play their first pink-ball Test come Friday, Tendulkar believes that the pitches have a huge role to play if Test cricket is to excite the crowds.

"Test cricket I have always said that surfaces need to be good for the bowlers as well because in T20Is and ODIs batsmen have the advantage. With two new balls in ODIs, the reverse swing has gone out of the game because there aren't very many bowlers who can reverse the ball. 310 is not a massive total and chaseable.

"So, with the other two formats in favour of batsmen, we need to look at a way to bring in bowlers more in Tests and give them a fair chance to compete with the bat because nobody would want to otherwise bowl in the future. Are the batters getting tested in Test cricket? I feel the answer is no. So, to get quality Test cricket, you need to have quality wickets. They don't need to be seaming tracks only, they can be turners also," he pointed.

For ODIs, he strongly believes that the way forward is to break a 50-over innings into two innings of 25 overs each.

"In ODIs, I feel to eliminate this dew factor thing which is a big disadvantage to the side bowling second, I had suggested the first team bats 25 overs and then the second team bats for 25 overs and then the first team bats again followed by the second team.” IANS

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