India suffered a 209-run defeat against Australia at The Oval on Sunday, losing the opportunity to lift the prestigious Test mace for the second time in a row. From misreading the conditions to not putting up a fighting performance in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, India’s below-par show has irked the former cricketers of the country so much that they are yet to calm down.
India have a month-long break before they fly to the Caribbean for a bilateral series comprising 2 Tests, 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is. The 2-match Test series will mark the beginning of India’s campaign in the next cycle of the WTC. However, before the upcoming series, former captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar made a scathing remark about the captain and the coach.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gavaskar said playing a Test series against West Indies and even affecting a whitewash won’t be meaningful for India who will eventually get defeated in the finals again.
“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?” he added.
Earlier, on Monday, Gavaskar slammed the Indian team management for dropping Ashwin from the playing XI for the WTC final. In his column for Mid Day, the batting legend expressed his dismay for leaving out the World No. 1 ranked Test bowler from the line-up. Eventually, it was the sixth Test match on the trot India played without Ashwin in England.
“No other top-class Indian cricketer in the modern era has been treated as bafflingly as Ashwin has been. Tell me if there was a No. 1 ICC-ranked batter in the team, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because in earlier times he had not got runs on a grassy pitch or if he had not scored runs on a dry spin-friendly pitch? Definitely not.
“This is not being wise after the event, but a pattern that has been seen over the years. But for this ‘hard to understand thinking’ he would have already played more than 100 Test matches.
“Even if India were to win, it should not blind us to the treatment given to Ashwin and whatever the explanation that is given, the bowling results in the match where India have been asked to chase 444 tells us that dropping him was not the right call to make,” wrote Gavaskar.
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