India’s legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar came out in support of the Indian team management, which drew significant criticism after India’s 0-2 whitewash at the hands of South Africa. With fans blaming them for hastening the transition of the team in red-ball cricket, Gavaskar contended that the series result would have been little different with the presence of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin. India lost their heaviest-ever game by runs in Guwahati, failing to put up any kind of resistance with bat and ball for Rishabh Pant’s side. Lack of fight and poor body language of the players led to severe backlash from fans and cricket experts alike.
Some critics cite the transition under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy as one of the major reasons for the fall of the team, stating Gambhir had a role in forcing Kohli, Rohit, and Ashwin out of the Test arena. According to them, this was one of the major reasons why India failed to stand up against the strong South African team. Gavaskar, though, has rubbished all these claims by stating that the three decided to go out on their own and not because of any pressure from the management.
“No, the call to take retirements must have been their call. Probably they might have been asked to consider their future. But we can’t say that had they been here, we would have won. They were there when we lost to New Zealand. What happened when they were there? We lost 0-3, no? Then what happened in Australia? We should not be thinking on these lines. No, we can’t be thinking whether we pushed them to retirement. That is the wrong way to approach this,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Aajtak.
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India will next play two Tests against Sri Lanka next year in August then the team will be visiting New Zealand in October-November 2026 and then and a five-match home showdown against Australia in early 2027 to cap off their WTC campaign.
