On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu slumped to its fourth loss from nine matches after being outplayed by Haryana. “More than talent what matters most is attitude and approach. I felt TN was lacking in that and even the energy levels were not up to the mark as compared to the other teams in our group. I don’t think we lack in skills. I can recall many instances where we made silly mistakes on the field and you can’t teach them that at this level. They lack awareness about what the situation demands,” analysed Kanitkar.

According to Kanitkar, this failure will help the team in ironing out its flaws ahead of the Ranji season and also plan its strategy better. “I hope we will learn lessons from this failure. Before the Ranji Trophy begins, we know where exactly we stand. Based on this performance, we have a long way to go. For every one step forward, we are taking two steps back,” added the 44-year-old.

The no-nonsense man that he is, Kanitkar refused to look for any excuses in the aftermath of another depressing defeat. “There is no excuse for how we played. The pitches have been good and the weather too hasn’t disrupted any of our plans like how it did for some other teams. We had a good squad and I was particularly impressed with how a few individuals played. They stood up when the team really needed them to,” said the coach.

Asked if there would be any preparatory camp ahead of the Ranji season, Kanitkar replied in the affirmative.

“It will be in Tamil Nadu. I want to see players who show more fight and hunger than those with talent. Players with the right attitude will add value to the side,” observed the former India player. To a question on the injured players, Kanitkar replied that pacer Aswin Crist is likely to be fit by the time TN plays its first match. On the issue of captaincy, Kanitkar reiterated that for the sake of continuity he would like to see one man leading the team in all formats before adding that a decision has yet to be taken in that regard.