Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both retired just before India's Test tour of England in 2025.
With fans blaming the team management for a hasty transition in the Test format, Gavaskar stated that there was no guarantee India would have won against South Africa even if Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had remained in the team.
South Africa thrashed India by 408 runs in Guwahati, their greatest defeat ever. The fans argued that the hasty changeover made by the Gautam Gambhir-led team management was to blame for India's home defeat.
Gambhir was accused of forcing Rohit, Kohli, and Ashwin out of the Test lineup, which largely contributed to India's defeat against a formidable South African side.
Sunil Gavaskar strongly disagreed with this judgment, claiming that Kohli, Rohit, and Ashwin were not forced to retire and that it was their own decision.
He maintained that having the trio in the South Africa series would not have ensured India's success, citing the New Zealand series last year, in which India lost 0-3 at home despite their presence.
"No, the call to take retirements must have been their call. Probably, they might have been asked to consider their future. But we can't say that had they been here, we would have won. They were there when we lost to New Zealand. What happened when they were there? We lost 0-3, no? Then what happened in Australia? We should not be thinking on these lines. No, we can't be thinking about whether we pushed them to retirement. That is the wrong way to approach this," Sunil Gavaskar said on Aaj Tak.
Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, however, had a very different sentiment from Gavaskar. Ashwin stated that there needed to be a better transition road in Indian cricket, implying that the trio may have been nudged out of the Indian team.
Ashwin stated that players such as Virat and Rohit required clarification and that they might have passed on their knowledge to younger players if they had been told upfront that the team intended to move on from them in the red ball format.
"There must be a certain pathway for transition. When there is no clarity, it becomes an individualistic decision. Virat could have groomed players. Rohit could have done that. I could have done that. I have always spoken about the importance of knowledge transfer. It has never been our strength," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Given that the squad will not play another Test match for the next seven months, the BCCI is expected to host a huge meeting to discuss the outcomes of this loss and the way forward.