Nottingham, August 13:
Indian
captain Sourav Ganguly stood by his bowlers but said he would
look for other options as well after his side had batted
valiantly to draw the second Test against England at Trent
Bridge.
"I don't want to
believe they are not capable of picking up 20 wickets but the
way it is going, at some stage, we would have to think about our
options," Ganguly said.
Indian bowlers conceded
617 runs to England at a rate of over four runs an over and it
created a situation where the batsmen needed to play at the top
of their form to draw the game.
"Fortunately we stuck
up pretty well and did what a team should do in a professional
sport if your bowlers fail. It is the job of your batsmen to
make up and vice versa."
Ganguly was
disappointed with the indisciplined bowling but said as a
captain he needed to support his men.
"I would say we are a
better side than what everyone has seen in this Test. As a
captain, it can be hard on a cricket field but at the end of the
day it is your team and you got to be behind them."
Ganguly then made a
specific mention of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who picked up
three wickets but conceded 175 runs in the first innings.
"He (Harbhajan) had an
ordinary game by his standards as the wicket had something for
him. But then he hasn't had much cricket before this Test but
for 15 overs against Worcestersh- ire in a rain-affected game,"
he explained.
The Indian captain
himself was disappointed with getting out on 99 on the last day
of the Test yesterday but said he preferred to look at the
brighter side of the game.
"Obvisouly, to get out
on 99 in a Test is disappointing but the good thing is that I
could score that many in difficult circumstances", he said.
Ganguly didn't fail to
mention the positives which his team had from this game.
"I think Sehwag has
been a big plus. He has been asked to open the batting, he has
never done that in his career and he played splendidly in both
the Tests."
"Wasim (Jaffer) hasn't
done badly from the time he has come into the team. You have got
to give young players some time," he observed.
England captain Nasser
Hussain didn't blame it on the weather for his side's inability
to force a win in the second Test.
"We lost 60 overs from
the game. The conditions suited us on the first day but we din't
quite pitch it up. We picked Dominic (Cork) ahead of Ashley
Giles and in the end lost them both", he lamented.
"Dominic's absence put
a lot of extra load on Matthew Hoggard who bowled beautifully
but without luck."
Hussain didn't think he
had made a mistake by not picking left-arm spinner Giles in the
playing eleven.
"The thing about spin
bowling in England is that five wickets for a spinner doesn't
happen too often," he said.
The England captain
gave credit to India for saving the Test and lamented that the
wicket was flat on the last day.
"But their top players,
when they needed to come to the party, they came to the party",
he remarked.
Hussain praised
man-of-the-match Michael Vaughan's off-spin bowling on the last
day when he claimed the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar.
"It is not just getting
Sachin out, but the ball he bowled to get him out was something
special."
Hussain also praised
Andrew Flintoff for carrying on the bowling load despite
carrying a groin niggle.
"I think it is coming
to a stage where we are beginning to get slightly
unprofessional. You can't keep playing him with a niggle".
"It would not happen in
any other sport. But unfortunately, the list of injuries and
Flintoff's exuberance, keeps us picking him," he added.
