London, September 09:
Though the
four-match Test series against England finished in a 1-1 deadlock,
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was quite sure who the better among
the two teams was.
"We won the Test series in
India 1-0, drew the one-day series 3-3 and then claimed the NatWest
Trophy before drawing the Test series here. I think it would sum up
who is the better side," Ganguly said on Monday referring to India's
upper edge in the home and away series against England this year.
For a change, his England
counterpart, Nasser Hussain, also seemed to agree with the
assessment.
"They are a tough side and
they should win more. Their batting line-up and their quality of
spin is special. They are a very competitive side," Hussain said.
"I found it very difficult
by the end of the summer to get 20 wickets against such a fine
batting line-up."
Ganguly said one of the
reasons why India were not winning more matches, especially abroad,
was the inexperience in the bowling attack. "We have to be a better
bowling unit. If you have to be a winning side, you have got to have
bowlers who can pick wickets on a flat, seamer's or turner's
wicket," he said.
"I thought our spinners
bowled very well on this tour and seamers learned from it. Zaheer
Khan bowled well but you need to have bowlers who pick up five
wickets in a Test."
And though Rahul Dravid
walked away with all the accolades after his stupendous show in the
series, Ganguly did not forget to mention the heroic effort of
Sanjay Bangar and called him the find of the tour.
"Bangar has been the real
find of this tour. He has bowled really well and batted well and
shown the right attitude. I hope he does the all-rounder's job for
quite sometime in future," Ganguly said.
Bangar, brought in to open
the batting in the third Test at Headingley, distinguished himself
with an outstanding knock of 68 in really difficult conditions and
then bowled so well at the Oval in England's first innings that he
was asked to share the new ball with Zaheer Khan in the second
innings.
Hussain was no less
forthcoming in his praise of Bangar and said the 29-year-old
Railways cricketer had played a big part in restricting England's
advance on the second day of the fourth and final Test.
"Indians were much more
disciplined on the second day and set the ring field well. Bangar
though bowled beautifully and we lost our way," Hussain said.
Ganguly was quite satisfied
with his teams' batting performance on this tour. "The things
started to change from the second innings of the Lord's Test. We did
not bat well in the first innings but from then on, we got to 400
plus everytime we walked out to bat."
"I would say (Virender)
Sehwag has come on as an opener in this tour especially if one
remembers he played as an opener in different conditions for the
first time," Ganguly said.
Hussain said his team has
made good progress in recent months even though it wasn't able to
win the present series. He was particularly impressed by the way his
batsmen are able to handle spin bowlers and gave the credit for it
to coach Duncan Fletcher.
"It was a special moment
for me when Rahul Dravid went to Michael Vaughan during the rain
break today and wanted to know how it's best to play (Muthiah)
Muralitharan. An Asian lad asking Micky about how to play spin is a
credit to how Duncan has worked with the boys," Hussain.
