London, June 18: Former captain Sourav Ganguly has rejected coach Gary Kirsten’s claim that fatigue was a reason behind India’s early ouster from the World Twenty20 championship and said Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men missed Virender Sehwag badly in the tournament.

While Kirsten had blamed an overdose of cricket and the Indian Premier League as the cause for the World Cup fiasco, India skipper Dhoni continued to differ with his coach, saying the team’s early exit has nothing to do with ‘fatigue factor’.

Ganguly bluntly disagreed with Kirsten on the cause of the debacle and said for a young team like India, fatigue can’t be an excuse. "I don’t agree with this because they are young boys. They are 22, 23 years old and have just started their career. I know they have played a lot of cricket but not all of them.

"Probably people like Dhoni, Yuvraj (Singh), Harbhajan (Singh) and Zaheer (Khan) have because they are part of consistent Test team and has done a lot of traveling on the road," he said.

"This is the age to play, they are 25, 26. Even if you are fatigued, you have to find ways out to get yourself up and going," he added.

Ganguly felt Sehwag’s absence made a major difference in realising the fortune of the team in the biennial event. — PTI