India failed to register a single win in their recent bilateral T20I tour of UK.
Team India endured a winless streak in their recent bilateral T20I tours of Ireland and England. Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, the reigning T20 world champions lost to Ireland 2-0 and to England 4-0.
Amid the debacle, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia had admitted the board is "deeply concerned" by the team's slump and will conduct a review following the conclusion of the series.
"We are deeply concerned about the Indian team's performance, and once this series is over we will definitely have a review with the captain and coach to understand what is going wrong and will rectify the problems soon so we can regain our stature," Saikia told India Today.
However, Gavaskar urged the board to focus on correcting technical flaws rather than making wholesale squad changes. He explicitly warned that taking hasty, structural decisions during a temporary slump will do more harm than good to the side.
“The BCCI is going to do a review of the defeat, and there are rumours that a few heads could roll. That would be an extreme step, for barely four months ago India were the world champions and still are No. 2 in the ICC rankings,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
India’s young batting unit struggled in both series, failing to counter the extra bounce generated by the opposition fast bowlers.
Highlighting the root cause of Indian batters' struggles, Gavaskar added: “There’s been a lot of talk about how playing on flat batting pitches has spoiled the Indian batters. Even on the so-called flat pitches in the IPL, most of the Indian batters struggled against the short ball. That is more of a technical failing. With the weight on the front foot and the back foot locked, there is simply no transfer of weight to deal with a ball climbing towards the face.”
He further remarked, “That said, the short boundaries are also to blame, as many of the sixes hit just about clear the boundary rope and so could be catches elsewhere. This has to be looked at urgently if India is to reclaim the ODI title on the faster, bouncier pitches in South Africa. Every ground in India can have longer boundaries, but is there the will for that? That is the question. We shall soon see.”
After facing whitewash in the five-T20I series, Team India’s fortunes change in the ODI series as the Shubman Gill-led side registered a comprehensive six-wicket victory over England in the opening match at Edgbaston.
The 50-over assignment also marked the return of seasoned campaigners like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
The second game of the three-ODI series will be played in Cardiff on Thursday (July 16).