After India's disappointing loss in the first Test against South Africa in Centurion, legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar didn't mince his words. Slamming Team India’s show in the Boxing Day Test, Gavaskar warned the team management over the workload management, especially for the youngsters.
Gavaskar stressed the importance of playing practice matches when touring countries like South Africa, New Zealand, or Australia. He strongly advocated for the practice matches for Team India after they suffered an innings and 32-run defeat against the Proteas in the first Test on December 28.
Furthermore, the former Indian captain didn't mince words when expressing his disappointment with the performance of young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa. Gill could manage only 28 runs, while Yashasvi scored 22 runs in Centurion.
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Sunil Gavaskar was quoted as saying by Star Sports: “‘Practice matches should be a must for youngsters and the word ‘Workload Management’ should not come in player’s mind at least for the young ones. When you are touring in countries likes South Africa, New Zealand or even Australia, playing warm-up matches will get you acclimatized to the conditions.”
Meanwhile, Indian captain Rohit Sharma admitted that his players didn’t exploit the conditions, especially with the ball after the embarrassing defeat against South Africa.
Rohit said at the post-match press conference, “We were not good enough to win. Having been put into bat, KL batted well to get us that score but then we didn’t exploit the conditions with the ball and then again didn’t show up today with the bat.”
He signed off by saying, “If we have to win Test matches, we have to come together collectively and we didn’t do that. Guys have come here before, we know what to expect and everyone has their own plan. Our batters were challenged and we didn’t adapt well.”
(With PTI/Starsports Inputs)
