Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the Australian selectors for making some questionable selections for the ongoing Test series in India after the tourists went 1-2 down in the series with the fourth and final Test to be held in Ahmedabad from March 9.
Blaming the Australian selectors for Australia’s lacklustre performance in the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the former Indian captain questioned the selection of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Cameron Green for the first two Tests of the ongoing series.
Notably, Hazlewood was ruled out of the Test series due to an Achilles injury, while Starc only made it to the third Test against India. Gavaskar wasn’t also happy with Matthew Kuhnemann’s selection for the India tour, as the Australian side already had players of his calibre in the team.
Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar: “While the ex-Australian players on the various media platforms are having a real go at their players, the ones who should be the real targets are the Australian selectors.”
The legendary batter further questioned, “How can they pick three players (Hazlewood, Starc, and Cameron Green) who they knew would not be available for selection for the first two Test matches?
That is, for half the series, the team management had only 13 players to pick from. Then they fly in a newcomer (Matthew Kuhnemann) when they had a similar player already in the team. If they didn’t think the player in the team was good enough, why did they pick him in the first place?”
Gavaskar signed off by saying, “That meant the team management was picking their 11 from 12 players. Ridiculous. If they have any sense of responsibility the selectors should resign even if Australia make a stunning comeback and win the next two Tests and level the series.”