Team India should not depend too much on Sachin Tendulkar: Kapil Dev

Former World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev on Wednesday advised Team India to not rely only on Sachin Tendulkar, and asked the youngsters to shoulder responsibility in the Test series against England. The four-match competition starts in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

“Sachin will be the centre of attraction. The focus will be on him. But you cannot rely only on Sachin. He is an important player, but it is the time when youngsters will have to shoulder the responsibility,” Kapil told in an exclusive interview to PTI Bhasha.

After being drubbed 4-0 by the Englishmen late last year, the Indians are aiming to dish out revenge. Kapil believes India need to take maximum advantage of the home conditions, but meanwhile asked the players to stay cautious.

“If you are playing on a turning wicket, toss plays an important role. The team that wins the toss gets an opportunity to play on the fresh wicket. You should always prepare the wicket as per team’s strength. But a rank turner might backfire,” the veteran all-rounder said.

Talking about India’s openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir who have not clicked for a while, the legendary cricketer uttered that the high-voltage series is really important for the opening pair, adding that the situation will get really tough for India, if these two don’t score runs at the top.

“Sehwag and Gambhir are big players, they hold a lot of importance. However, they have been struggling since last 15-20 Tests and it is really terrifying that what will happen if they don’t score at the top,” he stated.

“Every player has a reputation and on that basis a team is selected but if they don’t perform the team might have to struggle. Our opening is weak. If we get a good beginning, we can dominate England.”

Moreover, the former skipper added that Team India will have to work really hard in order to win the series, and with out-of-form Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, winning the series will be a huge achievement.

“The situation is tough. We don’t have strong bowling. If we win the series by clinching one or two Tests it will be a great achievement,” Kapil said. “Zaheer Khan is not in great form. Harbhajan (Singh) is also not performing well. In such circumstances if we win the series it will be a great thing.”

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Nov 15 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.