England vs India 2018: Sunil Gavaskar Hits Out at Hardik Pandya

Sep 3, 2018 at 3:49 PM

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England vs India 2018: Sunil Gavaskar Hits Out at Hardik Pandya

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has ripped apart India’s batting-order for overdependence on their skipper Virat Kohli in the ongoing five-match Test series against England.

Meanwhile, England sealed the series at Southampton beating the visitors by 60 runs. Moeen Ali bagged nine wickets in the Test, where India’s Ravichandran Ashwin had to work to pick wickets.

Unhappy with their performance, Sunil Gavaskar has once again ripped apart the Indian batting line-up for another dismal showing in the series. Chasing 245 to win, Virat Kohli led from the front with a gritty half-century alongside Ajinkya Rahane. However, once Kohli departed, the others crumbled too soon.

When you go in with five batsmen then you are bound to be in such a situation where you rely so much only on one player, Virat Kohli to get you the big hundreds. He can’t do it every time, he’s human.

Hardik Pandya, England vs India 2018
Getty Images

To expect that the lower order (to save India after the top-order collapse) after that Kohli-Rahane partnership was broken, to get even another 60-70 runs was too much,” Gavaskar said after the match.

India’s batting order has struggled throughout the series except for their skipper Virat Kohli. Moreover, only Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara managed to cross the 200-run mark. Sunil Gavaskar feels that the hosts exposed India’s deficiencies and that worked in their favour at Southampton.

Here (in Southampton) I think their deficiencies were shown. Earlier (at Edgbaston and Lord’s) I think the ball was moving around quite a bit so most opening batsmen would have struggled. But here in both these innings, I don’t think that was the case,” Gavaskar added.

Delhi Ranji Trophy 2018-19 Virat Kohli
Credit: Getty Images

Sunil Gavaskar slammed Hardik Pandya

The former India captain was also critical of Hardik Pandya, who failed to prove his potential on crucial times.

You want to call Hardik Pandya an all-rounder? Whoever wants to call Pandya an all-rounder, may call! But I don’t think so,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.

The fifth and the last Test starts from September 7 starts at the Kennington Oval, London.

 

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