Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has expressed reservations over India’s team combination for the first Test against South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
India lost the Kolkata Test by 30 runs inside three days as their batting collapsed like nine pins on a crumbling surface, with no one reaching the 50-run mark across two innings. While the hosts were bowled out for 189 in the first essay, their second innings folded for 93 in the chase of 124.
No wonder, questions are being raised over the Indian team management’s bold move to field three spin all-rounders – Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel – in the playing XI.
In fact, Sundar was prompted to bat at No. 3 as young left-hander Sai Sudharsan was dropped from the lineup. While Sundar scored 29 and 31 across two innings in Kolkata, he barely featured with the ball – sending down just one over in the first innings and not bowling at all in the second.
In his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar stressed that Test cricket requires specialists rather than part-time all-rounders.
"The defeat to South Africa will hopefully open the eyes of those who matter to look at the heavy scorers in domestic cricket, who are used to playing on pitches where the ball spins and keeps low. The international players are so busy playing overseas that they do not have practice playing on domestic pitches, and so are found wanting," Gavaskar wrote.
"Test batting demands patience and, more importantly, the willingness to leave your ego in the changing room. It does not matter if you get beaten and rapped on the leg guards. You do not have to try and tonk the ball out of the ground to show who is the boss. The only boss is the one who stays humble and accepts that at this level, the bowler will beat you, and so waits a bit till the scoreable ball comes along," he added.
Gavaskar further stated that a true all-rounder in Test cricket needs to have the ability to feature in the playing XI both as a batter and a bowler.
"India also needs to understand the difference between a Test all-rounder and a limited-overs all-rounder. A genuine Test all-rounder is someone who could make the eleven solely as a batter or as a bowler. A player who only offers a few overs or a few runs is not what Test cricket demands. A proper batter who can chip in with the ball is fine, just as a regular bowler who can hold up an end with the bat is valuable. But selecting a player who would not make the side purely as a batter or as a bowler might work in the short term, yet it does not add real value," Gavaskar remarked.
The 76-year-old cautioned that unless Indian think tank corrects course now, they risk missing the World Test Championship final again.
"After this South Africa series, India will not play a home Test for over a year. All the more reason that there is clarity about the difference between Tests and limited-overs games, and about the requirements for the different formats. If not, India could miss the World Test Championship final again, just as they did this June," he concluded.
