The legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar fumes over not giving enough national level opportunities to the talented Mumbai cricketers and called it deep-set bias.
Talking about that matter, Gavaskar has pointed out the Mumbai cricketer Siddhesh Lad’s performances. Despite performing consistently, the 26-year-old Mumbai middle-order batsman Lad hasn’t got an opportunity to play for at least the India A squad.
Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day, “There’s another Mumbai lad who invariably scores when his team is in trouble, and that is Siddhesh Lad, but despite his consistency he never finds himself even in the ‘A’ teams as the bias against Mumbai players is so deep-set. So, the one tour and one or two caps players from other states keep getting picked.”
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Making his professional cricket debut in 2013, Lad has played 44 first-class matches, 30 List A matches and 24 T20s where he has scored 3,211 runs (average 43.39), 986 runs (average 46.95) and 464 runs (average 29.00) respectively.
In his recent column, Gavaskar revealed his worry on Lad’s cricketing career and compared it with the former Mumbai cricketer Amol Muzumdar’s career. Despite scoring 11,167 runs in his first-class career, Muzumdar never earned an opportunity to play for the national cricket team.
Gavaskar added, “Let’s hope that he (Siddhesh) doesn’t suffer the same fate as Amol Muzumdar who scored a mountain of runs in first-class cricket but never got the India cap. It’s not the individual, but Indian cricket that suffered with such biased and myopic decisions. Can 2018- 19 see a change? We shall soon see.”
Gavaskar also feels that the importance of the Ranji Trophy has been diluted after some top players have been not involved in this competition due to their national duties.
The former Indian opener claimed, “With almost 35 top players out overseas on India and India ‘A’ duty, the national championship for the Ranji Trophy is considerably diluted. This is once again an indication of the misconception that the India team is Indian cricket continues.”
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The 69-year-old Gavaskar also praised another 25-year-old Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dubey. While Gavaskar feels that the left-hander should be on the radar of the IPL franchises for the upcoming season, he is one of the top powerful left-handed batsmen since Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh.
Gavaskar wrote, “One player who will definitely be on the radar of the scouts of the franchises as well as the national selectors is Shivam Dubey. Not since Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly has a left hander hit the ball so cleanly and powerfully in Indian cricket.
“That he is also a medium pacer is a huge plus and more than the franchises, the national selectors should be sitting and taking notice of this talent. He has scored two Ranji hundreds and also picked a fifer which is more than some who are considered indispensable to the Indian team have done. Besides being a left hander, he also brings a variation that the team can do with.”
