Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar believes Virat Kohli’s team has a wonderful opportunity to be the greatest ever Indian team. The Indian team has already savoured success in Australia on two back-to-back tours but they are yet to conquer England and South Africa under the leadership of Kohli.
In fact, no Indian team has savoured success in South Africa. Thus, if the Virat Kohli-led team can go on to win the series in England and South Africa, they will not only be regarded as one of India’s best teams but also will be considered as one of the world’s best teams ever. India will also aim to win the series in New Zealand but they will tour the Kiwis after a couple of years.
India will play a five-match Test series in England and it will be a perfect opportunity for them to take their revenge of the previous tour when they lost against the English team by 4-1. On the other hand, India will also tour South Africa later in the year and they have a great chance to win against the Proteas as the hosts are in the rebuilding phase and don’t have a potent team as compared to earlier times.
“The old saying that a captain or coach is only as good as the team is so true. This Indian team is blessed to have so many game-changers with both bat and ball, which very few previous Indian teams have had. They have a wonderful opportunity to seal the deal as the greatest-ever Indian team by winning in England and especially South Africa later in the year.
“Having won in Australia earlier in the year (Indian teams have triumphed in England in 1971, 1986, 2007), South Africa now remains the final frontier to conquer for this team,” Sunil Gavaskar said in a chat with The Telegraph.
On the other hand, India hasn’t been able to go all the way in the big ICC events. Team India last won a major tournament back in 2013 when MS Dhoni took the team to glory in the Champions Trophy.
Since then India hasn’t been able to cross the last few hurdles of the big event as they have been knocked out of the semi-finals and final despite performing well throughout the tournament. Gavaskar feels the Indian team could have selected a better side in those big events.
India will face England in the fourth T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.
