New Delhi, August 15: The humiliating loss to England in the Test series might have left Indian fans crestfallen but selection chairman Kris Srikkanth still sees light at the end of the tunnel. He thinks India can again become world No. 1 in 12-18 months, if they are consistent, reports Times of India.
“We shouldn't indulge in blame game. No one is shying away from responsibility, but we have to accept the reality that England were a better side in this series and we were outplayed in every department of the game. But still I haven't lost hope because the same set of cricketers won you the No. 1 status and I don't see the reason why we can't get to the top slot again,” Srikkanth told TOI on Sunday.
“We all have to put our heads together and plan for the future. We have to start the process all over again without complaining. We have to try our various combinations to get the best team like we did before the World Cup. We even dropped Yuvraj Singh, who came back strongly into the ODI team and left a huge impact on the tournament. We want to do similar things now,” Srikkanth said while dropping hints that chop-and-change could be order of the day when India play their next Test series, at home against West Indies .
As of now, Srikkanth says, accept the defeat gracefully. “This team can come back from difficult situations and we have seen that in the last couple of years. And out of the top batsmen, like Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman, at least two made it big in every Test. But this time, it was only Dravid who did the job. There was none to support him. We failed as a unit.”
According to the former Indian captain, batting has always been the strength of the team. “But in this series, our batsmen failed to cross 300-run mark in any of the innings so far. Even our fielding was bad. Trust me, this was the best team we had under the circumstances. Now that we have lost, we have to accept the loss.”
