Ganguly wants Kohli's India to 'win big tournaments'
India have been excellent overall in the previous three years, winning 129 and losing just 50 games across the three formats since January 2016. No other team has racked up as many wins, with England (96 wins) a distant second, while among those teams to have played 20 or more matches in this period, nobody boasts a better win/loss ratio than India's 2.580.
However, despite such splendid returns, India have been unable to lift an ICC trophy so far, with their last such win coming in 2013, when MS Dhoni led them to the ICC Champions Trophy title in England. Thereafter, they have stumbled in the semi-final at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in 2015 and 2019, and the ICC World T20 in 2016, and in the final of the 2014 World T20.
"This is a good team, but Virat needs to bring back the wrist-spinners"
— ICC (@ICC) September 27, 2019
In lead up to the @T20WorldCup, Ganguly feels it is important that the Kuldeep-Chahal pair are brought back in 🇮🇳's T20I setup.https://t.co/7lQtXyHycc
"They are a much better side than that," Ganguly said on Wednesday, 16 October. "That is the only area where they need to get themselves ready mentally."
India had an excellent run to the semi-final in the 2019 Cricket World Cup, winning eight and losing just one game in the group stage. They had looked set to defeat New Zealand after restricting them to 239/8, but then collapsed in the chase to lose the game by 18 runs.
"Talent is enormous. Otherwise, they couldn't have played so well in the World Cup till the semi-finals," Ganguly said. "So that's an issue which Virat needs to address. And that doesn't happen in the boardroom."
India remain an all-conquering unit in bilaterals and other non-ICC tournaments, and are ranked in the top four of all three formats in the MRF Tyres ICC Team Rankings. They won the 2018 Asia Cup under Rohit Sharma last year, while also securing their first Test series win ever in Australia in January 2019. They also currently lead the ICC World Test Championship table.
India's only Achilles heel at this point remains global tournaments.
"It is a very good side," said Ganguly. "My only thing is that they need to win big tournaments. I'm not saying they need to win every time. It's not possible. But we have gone through seven big tournaments [five for India's men and two for the women's team] without winning one."