I don't know if India's bowling good enough to win World Cup: Arjuna Ranatunga

Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga feels India might find it difficult to defend their World Cup title in 2015 scheduled in Australia and New Zealand due to the team39s weak bowling resources quotIndia look very strong in their batting but I don39t know whether their bowling is good enough to win a World Cupquot he said on the sidelines of the 39Wills Realtors39 event here last night The 1996 World Cup winning captain said young Indian batsmen have proved themselves in the shorter formats but need to perform well in Test cricket in overseas conditions Arjuna Ranatunga Pic Satyajit Desai quotWhen I saw Rohit Sharma a long time back I was wondering why he is not playing in Test match I feel he is one of the most talented cricketers I have seen Even Virat Kohli is a talented cricketer Batting wise I am sure India is strong with the lefthand batsman Shikhar Dhawan India is struggling with bowling quotThe important fact is that they need to go out and win games The testing part will be playing South Africa playing in England playing in Australia and not in the subcontinent It is important to win matches at home but you are tested when you go outquot he said The 49year old also felt that the other subcontinent team Pakistan too would find it difficult with its frail batting lineup quotPakistan s bowling looks good but the batting is still not good enough to win titlesquot he said Former Sri Lanka pacer Chaminda Vaas felt that India has produced good fast bowlers but many are not getting the opportunity quotI have seen so many good fast bowlers when I was in MRF a long time ago but only couple of guys are coming from that This country has produced so many good cricketers and there are so many good fast bowlers in this country but they don39t get a chance quotBut the guys who have been given a chance they have done extremely well They have taken from both ends and done really wellquot he said Sri Lanka selector and former captain Sanath Jayasuriya said the Indian batting order is formidable with the top six players in good form and are capable of chasing a huge target quotAs a batting unit they are doing well That is the key Even if the openers are not playing well the other six batsmen are in good form That is the key There is no problem chasing even 300 or 350 we have seen last few games they are chasing quite comfortablyquot he said Jayasuriya who made the transition from a middleorder batsman to an opener said India39s decision to open with Rohit Sharma was the right thing quotRohit was in the team Everyone knows that he is a talented cricketer but you all couldn39t get the maximum out of him He went through a really bad period and went out of the team and finally they got him to open I don39t know who got him to open but they did the right thingquot he said Ranatunga however felt that with the advent of T20 India would not be able to produce great batsmen like it had done in the past quotThe younger generation doesn39t watch proper cricket and learn They can39t learn from some of the present batsmen I can39t see the Gavaskars Vengsarkars Tendulkars or Rahul Dravids or Laxmans coming out from this country anymore and that is the saddest part as far as I am concerned quotWe looked up to India when we were young We looked up to Gavaskar Vengsarkar Gundappa Viswanath when we were kids but it doesn39t happen anymorequot he said He further said the proposed World Test Championship would help to recreate interest in the longest form of the game quotYou need something to bring up Test cricket This Test championship will give lot of credibility to some of the countries and some of the players I hope the wickets won39t be batsmen friendlyquot he said Not known to mince words Ranatunga said he is not a fan of T20 and lamented about Sri Lanka Cricket Board cancelling a series against South Africa in the island nation quotSouth Africa was supposed to play in Sri Lanka and they Sri Lanka Cricket Board cancelled the tour to play domestic T20 tournament Sri Lanka Premier League Ultimately the sponsor didn39t come and they cancelled it and also the South Africa series got cancelled South Africa was the number one side Playing in Colombo is not that easy for them quotIf we had won the series we should have come up to number three or number four now that we are at number 7 They don39t look at the future and the prospects that we can come up and play against the good sides rather than spending money on T20 We had lot of messed up issues in the last few yearsquot he said He also hit out at Sri Lankan seniors Tillakaratne Dilshan Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara for not shouldering enough responsibility quotI am not sure whether the batting line up is the right batting line up Last match Mahela suddenly opens with Dilshan and Sangakkara bats at number three So the top three guys now bat one to three and the entire pressure comes on the younger lot It is very unfair quotLet the senior guys take responsibility When we were playing we used to play 5 6 7 just to protect the juniors It is now all about personal glory that is one issue I seequot he said u00a0