Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar feels that the Indian team management should be questioned for their strategies and poor performances in the World Test Championship final against Australia. India suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia as they lost the encounter by 209 runs, without giving a real fight to the Baggy Greens in the grand final.
Team India came into the tournament with high expectations with many fans and experts believing that the team has a really good chance of ending their ICC title drought over the last decade or so, as the team won their last ICC title in 2013 under the leadership of legendary MS Dhoni in England, where the result did not go in the favour of Rohit Sharma-led side.
Speaking on the Indian Express Idea Exchange, Sunil Gavaskar wants the selectors and BCCI to question the team management regarding the team selection and their strategies against Travis Head in the marquee event, as he took the game away from India on Day one of the games in Kennington, Oval.
“The selectors and board should be asking questions, Why did you field first (at WTC final)? Okay, it was explained at the toss that it was overcast and all. The question after that should be, you didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball?”
“Why was the bouncer employed only when he had scored 80 runs? You know, the moment Head came into the bat, in the commentary box, we had Ricky Ponting saying, ‘Bounce him, bounce him.’
“Everyone knew about it but we didn’t try. Mind you, if I was in the commentary box, I would never tell anyone about an Indian player’s weakness. This is where the selection committee should be calling both captain and coach and asking, ‘Hello, what happened?,’ Sunil Gavaskar said.
India dropped Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing 11 as the decision met with severe criticism and it has only increased after the way the pitch behaved in the first two days. The Indian team management went into the game with four seamers, which proved to be costly for the team in the mega event.
Whether You Win Or Lose, The Captain Knows That He Is Going To Be There – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar feels that the captain should be questioned about the team game plan against Australia in the WTC final and believes the captaincy position does not come under the scanner if they fail to do well in the ICC events since the start of 2011.
“That kind of thing doesn’t happen. Whether you win or lose, the captain knows that he is going to be there. This has not been a recent case, mind you. This has been happening since 2011. There have been results where we have been wiped out in the series 0-4, 0-4 but the captain hasn’t changed,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma could not bring the best out of their players since he took up the mantle from ace batter Virat Kohli, as he failed to win a major trophy captaining the side in Asia Cup 2022, T20 World Cup 2022, and WTC Final 2023.