Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar and former England captain Nasser Hussain were engaged in a heated engagement after the India batting legend took offense to Hussain’s previous statement on Virat Kohli’s Indian team and how they will not be bullied like the previous generation of teams were.
India came back from behind to win the second Test match against England at Lord’s, bowling the hosts out for 120 runs in a chase of 272 inside 60 overs on day five. Even in the first Test in Trent Bridge, India was in the position of winning the match, needing 150 odd runs to win with 9 wickets in hand on the last day, which was washed out.
Meanwhile, during the pre-match show on Sony Sports, Gavaskar referred to Hussain’s article in the Daily Mail about this current Virat Kohli-led Indian side not being bullied like the previous generation were, Gavaskar asked Hussain to elaborate which generation of Indian cricketers was he talking about.
“You said this India will not be bullied as perhaps the previous generations would be. (I) Belonging to the previous generation, could you perhaps enlighten which generation? And what is the exact meaning of bully?” Gavaskar asked Hussain.
Hussain tried to reply by comparing the new aggressive look of the Indian team under Virat Kohli, the spark of which was lit under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.
“I just think, the Indian side under the aggression of the past, would have said ‘no no no’. But what Kohli has done is to make them go doubly hard. I saw a little bit of that in Sourav Ganguly’s side and he started that, Virat is continuing with it. Even when Virat was not there, Ajinkya really went hard at the Australians. I just don’t think you want to wake this Indian side up,” Hussain replied.
However, Gavaskar retorted by citing records of the previous Indian teams which has toured England in the past. Incidentally, India is celebrating the 50th anniversary of their maiden Test series win in England, which came in 1971 under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar and Gavaskar was part of that winning team.
“But when you say previous generations were bullied, I don’t think so. I’d be very upset if my generation was being talked about as being bullied. If you have a look at the record, in 1971 we won, that was my first tour in England. 1974, we had internal problems so we lost 3-0. 1979, we lost 1-0, it could have been 1-1 if we chased down 438 at the Oval. 1982 we again lost 1-0. In 1986 we won 2-0, we could have won it 3-0.
So, I don’t think in my generation we were bullied. I don’t think aggression means you have always got to be at the face of the opposition. You can show passion, you can show your commitment towards your team without yelling after each fall of wicket,” Gavaskar said.
Again Nasser Hussain tried to end the argument and said: “I for one, quite like the way Kohli leads this side. That’s what I wanted to say. That team talk in which he said ‘let’s unleash fire on this English side’ and you could see the fire that they unleashed.”
“There is no argument in that. The question is saying that the previous generations were bullied. I don’t think this is right,” Gavaskar added.
The banter between Gavaskar and Hussain came to an end when presenter Harsha Bhogle said Hussain will have to leave a bit early for the toss.
