- Friday, February 28, 2025
The legend said winning a bilateral series against teams such as the West Indies will not mean anything, if India continue to repeat mistakes in summit clashes against big teams.
By: Shubham Ghosh
FORMER INDIA captain Sunil Gavaskar has been livid with his country’s show in the just concluded World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval, England, which they lost by 209 runs.
The 73-year-old did not mince words while speaking of the lackadaisical performance by Rohit Sharma’s men in the match and questioned India’s approach and said the entire unit has to work on all fronts that went wrong. India failed to score 300 in either of the two innings while their bowlers allowed Australia to make a dominant comeback despite taking three wickets on the first day morning.
Sunil Gavaskar speaking his heart out.
Bang on Sunny G pic.twitter.com/CXGrqvgHiZ
— Arya Harish (@iAryaHarish) June 11, 2023
Gavaskar also said that winning a bilateral series against teams such as the West Indies will not mean anything, if India continue to repeat their mistakes in the summit clashes against big teams such as Australia. It was India’s second successive defeat in the WTC summit clash, following their eight-wicket hammering against New Zealand in 2021 in Southampton.
“You cannot brush this under the carpet like ‘yeah we have got two matches against West Indies’. West Indies are not the best team in the world. You just go and hammer them 2-0, 3-0, whatever the matches are. This doesn’t mean anything because when you come across and if you go to the finals and if you are playing Australia again, making the same mistakes, then how would you win the trophy?” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
India will play two Tests, three one-day internationals and five T20s in the Caribbeans and the US between July 12 and August 13. They have been winning a number of bilateral series but have failed to win an International Cricket Council trophy in the last decade.
Speaking of India’s approach, the veteran said, “I have been in the teams where we have been knocked out at 42 and we had been miserable in the change rooms. We were also criticised heavily. So, I think you cannot say that the current lot is not beyond criticism. They have to be very analytical about what happened, how they get out, why didn’t they bowl well, why didn’t they catch, was the selection of the Playing XI was the right thing, so all these factors have to come in.”
Gavaskar also blasted ace batter Virat Kohli for his poor shot selection in the second innings that led to his downfall on the fifth day morning and delivered a body blow to India’s chances of resurrecting their innings.
Pacer Scott Boland lured the batter to play a cover drive but only found a thick edge towards the slip and Steve Smith dived low to take a stunning catch. Kohli fell for 49.
“Ask him, not me,” a visibly irked Gavaskar said after the anchor asked for his take on Kohli’s dismissal.
