Before the start of the home Test season, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee wanted their senior members of the side to get some more practice through the Duleep Trophy 2024 as a preparation to face Bangladesh and New Zealand. However, most of the experienced players refused to be part of the event.
In the opening game of the tournament between India A and B, experienced members like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shubman Gill took part in the contest along with young Sarfaraz Khan. In Anantapur, Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel turned up for the game, which helped them in giving a decent amount of practice for the Test matches.
The reports claimed that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma could make themselves available for the encounter, and that was the only reason for hosting the first game in Bengaluru, but they refused to take part at the eleventh hour. The same happened with Ravichandran Ashwin, and with Mohammad Siraj, who was ruled out of the event due to injury.
Sunil Gavaskar advises this to seniors of India after a tough series against the Blackcaps
Ravindra Jadeja was included in the squad but was later taken down by the BCCI selectors. The reports expressed that the senior members didn’t have the motivation to be part of the domestic tournament. One of the reasons, ten weeks later, for the whitewash of 0-3 at home against New Zealand for the batters was their lack of match practice.
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The former Indian captain and opening batter of the side, Sunil Gavaskar, slammed the batters for ignoring the domestic tournament and reckoned that the Blackcaps had a better attack and knew the conditions better because of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
They should have had some practice. It’s a long gap. I know we beat Bangladesh, and therefore, it looked as if it was going to be a cakewalk against New Zealand. But New Zealand had a better attack, with cricketers who have played in India and in the IPL, who have a sense of what Indian pitches do.” Gavaskar said in an interaction with ‘Indian Express.’
Rohit, the Test captain of India, could manage only 91 runs in their six innings at an average of 15.5 with one solitary half-century, while Kohli just managed two more runs than the Nagpur-born with the same return. In the bowling, Ashwin struggled with his line and length and picked up only nine wickets at a huge average.
The top senior members of the current T20 World champions got ample breaks during the Zimbabwe trip and later in the 20-over series in Sri Lanka. There was more than a month’s gap between the end of the ODI series on the Island and the beginning of the Duleep Trophy. This could be the best preparation for the Indian batters to check their technique a little bit.
The reports claimed that despite giving their consent for the series, the senior top batters withdrew from the tournament at the last moment, and the results can be seen.
Gavaskar has suggested the players not delve much into what happened and prepare for the future, where they will be up against Australia in the five-match Test series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
“What I would say to them is just forget it. Forget it as a bad dream. Just totally focus on Australia. Go there, practice with purpose, and with the intent of trying to win the series again for the third time. Whether you win 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, whatever. That’s the one thing that will lift the Indian cricket-loving public.” The renowned commentator advised.