Legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar reckons that the Indian team needs to look beyond Bhuvneshwar Kumar and integrate Deepak Chahar in the setup ahead of the 2023 World Cup. Bhuvneshwar is part of the team for their ongoing three-match ODI series in South Africa and couldn’t take a wicket in the first two matches, both of which ended in India being the losing team.

During a chat on Sports Today, Sunil Gavaskar said, “I think it’s time to look at Deepak Chahar now. He is younger, pretty much the same kind of bowler and bats handily down the order. Bhuvi has been a tremendous servant of Indian cricket but in the last year or so, even in franchise level T20 cricket, he has been expensive. Not so much at the start of the innings but towards the end.”

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He further elaborated, “He used to bowl those brilliant yorkers and slower deliveries, but those are not working anymore. That can happen, the opposition is studying you all the time and they will know how to be prepared for it. So maybe it is time to look at somebody else.”

Deepak Chahar took just a solitary wicket in each of the three T20Is he played against New Zealand last year. He was also a player of the match in the last ODI he played against Sri Lanka in July last year for his all-around performance. He recorded figures of 2/53 as India bowled first against Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Colombo and then helped the Indian team to India to victory with an unbeaten 69 off 82 balls coming in at No.8. He put up an unbeaten stand of 84 runs for the eighth wicket.

Sunil Gavaskar said that India should be making their squads in the coming ODIs with the 2023 World Cup in mind. The tournament is scheduled to be played in India in October and November next year.

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Talking about the same, Sunil Gavaskar said, “Now the intention should be to look at what is going to be your core team for the 2023 World Cup in India. We have got a good 17-18 months to do that. The core team has got to get the maximum number of ODIs. There are matches coming against West Indies, Sri Lanka, and later on against England. That is where you have got to give them the maximum number of matches so they are well prepared for the World Cup.”