'Intra-squad a Joke Because Would Your Fast Bowlers Bowl...': Sunil Gavaskar After India's Dismal Show in 1st Test vs SA

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at India’s preparation plan for the South Africa Test series and said playing the intra-squad match for a difficult tour is a joke. Rohit Sharma and Co. didn’t play a practice game before the two-match series on the Proteas soil as team management decided to go with an intra-squad match which was played behind closed doors.

India were completely outclassed by the Proteas in the first Test in both bowling and batting as the visitors just looked ill-prepared on the field. The batters struggled miserably against the swing, while the bowlers were out of plans on a good bowling surface.

Gavaskar pointed out the reasons for India’s embarrassing an innings and 32-run defeat as he said the BCCI should have planned the India A series before the tour.

“The reasons are straightforward – you didn’t play any matches here. If you straightaway play Test matches, it doesn’t work out. Yes, you sent the India A team. The India A team should actually come before the tour,” he said on Star Sports.

The batting legend asserted that in an intra-squad game, the bowlers don’t test the batters with the bouncers and express pace to avoid injury in the camps.

“You need to play practice matches after coming here. Intra-squad is a joke because would your fast bowlers bowl extremely fast to your batters, would they bowl bouncers, as they would be scared about injuring their batters,” he said.

Gavaskar also seemed unimpressed with the workload management excuse for the Indian players missing matches these days as he suggested it would have been good for India if they had played against the South Africa A team before the Test series.

“So it’s better to play against the South Africa A team or play two or three matches against a county or a state. The schedule that is made these days, where you play only Test matches with a gap of seven days in between – remove the ‘workload’ word from Indian cricket’s dictionary,” he added.

Gavaskar emphasised that the practice matches helped the young players to get used to the conditions.

“Nothing happens to senior cricketers. They will play the second, third and fourth match even if they fail. Practice matches are necessary for the young players. If you want, you can ask your senior players to come at ease, they can come a day before the Test match, but you need to arrange practice matches for the young players,” he said.