Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the team’s current senior players for their workload issues. Questioning their fitness, he added how players are breaking down so often despite playing T20 games most of the time as well. However, Team India has been constantly rotating their senior players in recent times. Yet, a number of their key players have sustained injuries as well, including pace spearhead pacer Jasprit Bumrah, batters KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, among a few others as well.
Speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange, he said: “The truth is the main guys do not want to go early [to prepare for big events]. Because they know that come what may, they will get selected. And when you go early they will talk about the workload. You call yourself the fittest team in the world or fitter than the early generations, then how do you break down so soon? How do you have a workload issue when you play a 20-over game?”
READ MORE: Sanjay Manjrekar dissects Virat Kohli’s poor show in WTC Final
Most of the Indian players took part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, which ended on May 29 and Team India played the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia from June 7 to 11 as well.
READ MORE: Harbhajan Singh says Australia have the upperhand in the WTC final
“What kind of preparation are we talking about? Now they have gone to the West Indies. You have the example of the World Test Championship before you. Are you playing any matches? So what is this talk about 20-25 days?” Sunil Gavaskar added: “When you talk about preparation, be genuine about it. Go 15 days before, play two warm-up matches. The main guys can rest, but the fringe players might be actually challenging those who are not doing well. He does not get an opportunity to show that he is good enough.”
