Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar recently lashed out at the Indian selectors for picking senior cricketers for the two-match Test series against the West Indies, starting next month. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) almost named a similar squad that featured in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final earlier this month. Veterans like Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami are the only three players not part of the squad as well.
And, the selection didn’t go down well with Gavaskar, who slammed the selectors, saying that this series will only help the senior players boost their individual records.
“What is Indian cricket going to learn by picking the same seniors for the two Test matches who have now failed to deliver in two World Test Championship finals?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Mid-Day. “How does it even matter if they score heaps of runs and take a bunch of wickets in the Caribbean apart from it bulking up their individual career stats?”
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Sunil Gavaskar further added that picking some youngsters for this series would have helped them as West Indies are no more the strong side they used to be. He, however, picked a couple of youngsters, namely Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal, for the two-match series against the West Indies, which begins on July 12 in Dominica.
“West Indies are no more the force they were in the last century as can be seen by the fact that they are currently playing in Zimbabwe to try and qualify for the ODI World Cup that they won twice in the 70s. So picking some younger players for the Test series would have made more sense,” he added.
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“More importantly, the seniors who are certainties for the World Cup in October could have done with a bit of rest after the busy season they have had over the last six months,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded. “With the World Cup in mind, they should focus only on white-ball cricket and prepare for what promises to be an exciting World Cup.”
