Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has said that competing in the Ranji Trophy would have been a better choice for some of the Indian batters instead of playing the T20I series against Afghanistan. Team India are slated to play a five-match Test series against England, beginning on January 25.

However, the Afghanistan T20I series is the final T20I assignment before the 2024 T20 World Cup for them whereas several members of the Test squad need to shift their gear for the Tests. And, Gavaskar said that the batters did not have a good outing in the previous Test series against South Africa, and they could have played in the ongoing Ranji Trophy to be prepared ahead of the England Tests.

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“Would it have been better for some Indian batters to have played a couple of Ranji Trophy games to tune themselves for the Test series against England? Apart from KL Rahul, who scored one of the finest Test centuries seen in the first Test match in Centurion, and Virat Kohli, who batted well without quite getting to a century, the other Indian batters had a forgettable four innings in South Africa,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.”We will, of course, see in the coming weeks whether they should have played the T20 internationals against Afghanistan or a Ranji Trophy game.”

However, Team India won the T20I series against Afghanistan by a 3-0 margin, and the upcoming home Test series against England will be an important assignment, considering that they have not had a great start to the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. During that time, Team India made some significant changes and the team management is keen on working on those as well.

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“Bringing back Rohit Sharma and Kohli for the three-match series against Afghanistan made little sense which the skipper got out to the first ball he faced in the second game made one wonder if he is even interested in being out there. Having gotten run out for a duck in the first game, it was expected that Rohit would look to get some runs in the second. Instead, he played a forgettable shot to the first ball he faced and was back warming the cold bench in the changing room, watching two youngsters, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube, toy with the Afghanistan bowling attack,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.