Never felt Anil Kumble was strict: Wriddhiman Saha

Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha on Saturday insisted that he never found former head coach Anil Kumble strict as his other teammates used to consider him.

Many of Saha's teammates found Kumble to be strict as a coach, but the 32-year-old said that he never felt the same about the former cricketer, who resigned from the post following a fallout with skipper Virat Kohli.

"I did not feel that way. As a coach, he had to be strict in some way or the other. Some have felt he is strict, some have not. I have never felt that way under Anil [bhai]. Anil always wanted us to score big - 400, 500 and 600 and felt that the opponent can be bowled out within 150-200. That's not always possible," Saha said.

 

When asked to compare the style of coaching of the former coach and incumbent Ravi Shastri, Saha said that though both of them are more or less same, Kumble sometimes had unrealistic expectations.

"Ravi [bhai] always tells us to go for the kill. Go out there and hit the opponent out of the park. This is the only difference I could see. Rest, both spoke positive stuff. When Ravi [bhai] was director, he was aggressive. In his new stint, he seems to have become more involved," Saha said.

In July, former Indian all-rounder and team director Shastri was appointed as the new head coach of the country's cricket team.

Kumble's resignation came following India's 180-run defeat against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final at the Oval on June 18.

The legendary leg-spinner had informed that Kohli had reservations about his work 'style' and his extension as the head coach, which prompted him to resign.

Meanwhile, Saha also reflected on India's first-ever overseas Test series win when they thrashed Sri Lanka 3-0 in the three-match series.

Saha admitted that the temperament in the Lankan team from the batting point of view was weak, which turned out to be in their favour.

"Their temperament was weak from the batting point of view, which helped us. One session they held fort but we knew they would run out of patience in the next session, that helped," he said.

The two sides are currently playing a five-match ODI series which will be followed by a one-off T-20 match.