Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar didn’t mince his words as he reacted to India’s dismal performance in the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford.
Speaking on Sony Sports, the former India captain questioned the decision-making setup within the team, firmly placing responsibility on skipper Shubman Gill.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Look, I mean we didn't have coaches, we just had, you know, former players as managers or assistant managers of the team… they were not coaches but the kind of people you actually went up to and talked… they would give you some advice at lunchtime or at the end of the day's play or on the eve of the game. So it's difficult, you know, for me to get my head around the captains and the coaches combination,” Gavaskar said.
The former captain noted that in his playing days, decisions rested with the skipper, not a team of analysts or coaches. “When I was captain we had nobody who was a former player to be honest. I had Commander Durrani once and I had Raj Singh Dungarpur. The only time was Irapalli Prasanna and he was brilliant.”
His remarks come at a time when Team India is struggling to contain England’s dominance in the Test series. England, led by Ben Stokes’ stellar century and five-wicket haul, posted a mammoth 669 in their first innings.
India, in reply, collapsed early in the second innings, losing openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan for ducks, both dismissed by Chris Woakes within the first over.
Drawing attention to team selections, Gavaskar made a pointed remark: “You can't say that he didn't want somebody like, you know, maybe in Shardul Thakur's case or Kuldeep Yadav's case... maybe Shubman didn't want Shardul in the team and wanted Kuldeep in the team. He should have had them in the team. He is the captain.”
Gavaskar didn’t stop there. “He's going to be... I mean people are going to talk about him and his captaincy out there so it's got to be his call really. And I know for the sake of showing everything is hunky dory that these things might not come out. Fact is that the captain is the one who is responsible for the team. He's the one who's going to be leading those 11 players. Simple as that.”
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