New Delhi, India

Before India takes on South Africa in the second and final Test, in Cape Town, former Indian cricketer and chief selector Kris Srikkanth has lashed out at Rohit Sharma & Co., claiming they are 'overrated' in Tests and 'highly overrated' in T20Is. Srikkanth feels India are resting on past laurels in Test cricket, achieved during Virat Kohli's captaincy era, and feels the national side should not read much into the ICC Team Rankings, where they are No. 1 across formats.

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Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth said, "In T20 cricket India are highly over-rated. ODI cricket, we are a fantastic team. What happens in ODIs, in the semi-finals, finals, it's just a one-off match. It's a luck factor, a lot depends on luck in these matches. I read Rohit Sharma's statement, for a cricketer, the 50-over World Cup is a huge achievement. We are sometimes underperforming in the knockout matches, into the semi-finals and the final. But we are a gun side in ODI. Regardless of where we play, be it India, Australia or South Africa, we are a gun side."

'When Virat Kohli was the Test captain...'

He further stated, "Test cricket, we are over-rated. We have to make sure... I think it was a phase of 2-3 years... when Virat Kohli was the captain of the team, we were outstanding. We dominated in England, we fought hard in South Africa, we won in Australia. We had a good phase for 2-4 years. Yes, we were dominating in England, in Australia."

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Srikkanth, however, feels that since then India have been resting on past laurels in the purest format. After Kohli quit Test captaincy, India lost the one-off Test versus England in July 2022, lost the WTC final in June 2023 and failed to win the first Test of the ongoing two-match series versus South Africa in Centurion, last month.

Also read: Test cricket is the ultimate challenge: India captain Rohit Sharma ahead of Cape Town Test vs SA

The 1983 World Cup-winner urged, "We have to forget ICC ranking. We are always 1-2, 1-2. It's a combination of having over-rated cricketers and people who have not performed up to their potential. Or there are players who have not enough chances like Kuldeeep (Yadav)."

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"If you want to be the best team, you should be capable of being the giants in their home grounds. That is what we did when Rishabh Pant was firing. But you can keep on talking that we scored in Australia, we scored in England. You can sing the same song, you won't move forward if you rest on past laurels. You have to just look at how you have performed in the last 2 years, last 18 months," concluded Srikkanth.

India ended 2023 as the No. 1 ranked side across formats. However, they failed to win the WTC final and ended as runners-up even in the home ODI World Cup, which ended on Nov 19 last year.

India's last ICC triumph came in 2013 Champions Trophy, under MS Dhoni. Since then, they have competed very well in all major events but failed to grab hold of the silverware.

At present, Rohit & Co. are gearing up for the two-match Test series finale versus hosts South Africa, at Newlands, Cape Town, which starts on Jan 3 (Wednesday). The visitors lost the first Test by an innings and 32 runs, in Centurion.