A ‘surprised’ Venkatapathy Raju, former India left-arm spinner, said Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s ‘second-string Indian side’ comment was an ‘unwanted’ one. India have decided to send a young squad with Shikhar Dhawan as captain and Rahul Dravid as head coach as the regular skipper and head coach, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri, are with the Test side in England. The decision to form two separate Indian teams was taken to minimize travel due to Covid-19 regulations.
"This is a second-string Indian team and their coming here is an insult to our cricket. I blame the current administration for agreeing to play with them due to television marketing needs," Ranatunga had said.
"India sent their best team to England and sent a weaker side to play here. I blame our board for that," he added.
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Raju, who has played 28 Tests and 53 ODIs for India, said Ranatunga was wrong to make such a statement as the touring Indian side has a group of players who can make it big at the international level.
“I’m not a firm believer of this word ‘second-string’. They are all aspiring cricketers; you can’t really call them second-string. That’s were Ranatunga went wrong. He should not have said second-string. That was an unwanted comment from such a great cricketer,” Raju told Hindustan Times in an exclusive chat.
{{/usCountry}}“I’m not a firm believer of this word ‘second-string’. They are all aspiring cricketers; you can’t really call them second-string. That’s were Ranatunga went wrong. He should not have said second-string. That was an unwanted comment from such a great cricketer,” Raju told Hindustan Times in an exclusive chat.
{{/usCountry}}The former spinner who was also part of the selection committee that picked a young Indian side under MS Dhoni for the 2007 T20 World Cup, said Ranatunga should have been happy that an Indian team is touring Sri Lanka in these tough times.
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“He should have been happy that a team is coming and touring Sri Lanka during these tough times. Sri Lanka are also trying to form a team, try youngsters for the T20 World Cup. So, I was a little surprised that such a senior and great cricketer would refer this Indian side as a second-string. People are waiting for cricket to happen,” Raju said.
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Asked if the inexperienced Indian side which has six uncapped cricketers, will be more eager to prove Ranatunga wrong in the upcoming three ODIs and as many T20Is, Raju said the players are professional enough not to let these comments bother them.
“If that’s the case (India being more motivated after the second-string comment), we want him to make these statements more,” Raju, who will be an expert for Sony Sports Telegu broadcast of the India-Sri Lanka series, said with a laugh.
“No but I think these guys are professional enough. The Sri Lanka cricket team itself is struggling,” he said.
Raja added that India will start as favourites as the Dhawan-led side that has Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and looks balanced in all departments.
“If you look at the Indian side, it is well balanced. They have been together for a long time. All these guys are aspiring to be a part of the T20 World Cup squad and Sri Lanka we’ve seen are struggling with their own issues. So India definitely start as favourites. Then again white-ball cricket is always unpredictable. If you take a team lightly, anything can happen. Recently we saw Ireland beating South Africa,” he said.
(Watch the 1st ODI on 18th July 2021 LIVE on SONY TEN 1 and SONY SIX in English and Sony Ten 4 in Telegu from 3.00 pm IST)