Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Ishant Sharma

David Gower

Ian Botham

Steve Smith

Michael Holding is never known to mince words and when Mirror approached the West Indian great for his thoughts on the India-South Africa series, he spoke his mind out candidly. Excerpts from an interview…I was not comfortable with the Centurion pitch at all. South Africa would be happy that they won the Test. My problem with Centurion was that cricket was entertaining there. The bowlers were struggling, the batsmen were struggling. It was not a spectacle that people would want to go back and watch again. The first Test match (Cape Town) pitch was very bowler friendly but I am sure people will want to see the first Test match again rather than the second.I won’t say that. The bowlers have done a good job. Batting is what has failed India. I said on the first morning of the series that it was all about India’s batting line-up. I don’t think India have too much to worry about their bowling. They need to get some runs on the board. The South Africa’s is an outstanding attack, not an average attack. India have to find ways to get the runs.bowled beautifully at Newlands. I was not sure why he did not play in the second Test. Bumrah (Jasprit) bowled better in the second Test than in the first. Mohammd Shammi bowled differently in the Tests but he was not impressive in the first. I was disappointed with Ravi Ashwin in the second Test. I thought he bowled a wrong line. If he had bowled more off-stump line with flight, he would have been successful. Having said that, the bowlers did a good enough job.Personally I think Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the best of the seamers.is good but I think he is a fourth bowler than an attacking frontline new ball bowler. He has done well still. He does not give runs away. People say he is young but has played 80 Test matches which take their toll on the body. There is a difference between 29 years old after 80 Tests and 29 years old after 40 Tests. Fast bowling is hard work. There are of course issues with the team. I am not sure why Rahane (Ajinkya) is not playing. I know he did not do well against Sri Lanka but you need to play who did well overseas. India do not have too many players who have done well overseas.I don’t know enough about Bumrah because I have seen him bowl for the first time here. I was not very impressed in the first Test. At Centurion, he bowled better. I think he was successful in the second match because of the nature of the pitch. The two wickets that he got in the second innings would not come on a good pitch. The balls would have bounced to the normal heights and the batsmen would have cleared them normally. At his pace, he became successful because the ball was keeping low.It is hard to decide who is or are the best. Because a lot of times I don’t see them. I don’t watch cricket when I am in the US. I follow the games only when I am in England or South Africa. I follow the scores but I don’t actually watch it. But I did say before the Ashes started that Australia will win the se-ries because England cannot take 20 wickets away from home.When people talk of about the four-pronged West Indies pace attack, they forget the quality of fielding we had. Once the ball goes past the bat, we had ensured that the catch was going to be taken. There would be odd dropped- catches but only the hard ones. As I said, fast bowling is hard work and you don’t want to run hard when you don’t have the confidence on the wicketkeeper or the slip fielder. Once you have that confidence, you can concentrate on your bowling. Some runs go away here and there but they are not detrimental, the dropped catches are detrimental.No, I don’t think so. I don’t pay much attention to these ICC rankings. When India went to England, they were the No 1 ranked team and I said they are not the best in the world. England beat them 4-0.andasked me if England are the best and I said South Africa were the best. They said ‘we will see next year’. South Africa went to England and beat them.I think it is South Africa. They lost to India and lost badly too. But when they lost to India, the bowling was not what it is now. When Australia come here next month, that series will tell us alot. Because both sides will be playing under conditions that are familiar to them – hard dry pitches and bright sunshine.Virat Kohli is a fantastic batsman. I was asked to name three top cricketers and I included Kohli in that list. He is a very very good player. When I see him score runs in England, I would call him a great player. I like people who score runs everywhere. He is an extremely good player.But as a captain, he has some work to do. I don’t want to condemn him too much because I like to have my own way as a captain. I like to be given the team I want all the time. But it is still not the right way to go. There got to be discussions with the wiser heads from time to time, come to conclusions and flesh out different arguments. I get an impression that he is getting what he wants.He is very emotional about his cricket. He means everything he wants to do. In time he will learn. Because he has been so successful since he took over, it is hard for him to change. He has to see other view points and arrive at consensus.The three cricketers I think are the best now are Joe Root, Virat Kohli and. AB de Villiers has just come back into Test cricket and let’s see how he does. I don’t want to include him yet in that list.Everybody knows I have not changed my opinion. I have not seen any good that has come out of Twenty20. A lot of players are benefiting but I don’t think the game is benefiting.No. I am tiered of the ICC now. I don’t want to go deep into that.