Gavaskar minced no words as he weighed in on India’s dismal performance in the Manchester Test against England.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar minced no words as he weighed in on India’s dismal performance in the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford.
Speaking on Sony Sports, Gavaskar questioned the decision-making setup within the team, firmly holding skipper Shubman Gill accountable.
“Look, I mean we didn't have coaches, we just had, you know, former players as managers or assistant managers of the team… they were not coaches but the kind of people you actually went up to and talked… they would give you some advice at lunchtime or at the end of the day's play or on the eve of the game. So it's difficult, you know, for me to get my head around the captains and the coaches combination,” Gavaskar said.
The former captain mentioned that in his playing days, decisions rested with the skipper, not a team of analysts or coaches.
“When I was captain we had nobody who was a former player to be honest. I had Commander Durrani once and I had Raj Singh Dungarpur. The only time was Irapalli Prasanna and he was brilliant.”
Team India are currently 1-2 behind in the five-match Test series against England. The fourth Test is currently underway at Old Trafford, with the visitors facing a herculean task to save the game.
India are trailing England by 137 runs in the second innings heading into the final day in Manchester. Skipper Shubman Gill (78) and KL Rahul (87) batted brilliantly in the last two sessions on Day 4 to keep the team in the contest as the tourists reached 174/2 at stumps.
Drawing attention to team selections, Gavaskar made a pointed remark: “You can't say that he didn't want somebody like, you know, maybe in Shardul Thakur's case or Kuldeep Yadav's case... maybe Shubman didn't want Shardul in the team and wanted Kuldeep in the team. He should have had them in the team. He is the captain.”
The 76-year-old further stated, “He's going to be... I mean people are going to talk about him and his captaincy out there so it's got to be his call really. And I know for the sake of showing everything is hunky dory that these things might not come out. Fact is that the captain is the one who is responsible for the team. He's the one who's going to be leading those 11 players. Simple as that.”