Following the loss in the Centurion Test against South Africa, legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar was critical of Team India and BCCI’s decision of not playing any practice or first-class matches before the 2-Test series.
With India losing the first Test of the 2-Test series – and thus letting another opportunity to win a historic first-ever Test series in South Africa – by a big margin of an innings and 32 runs, Sunil Gavaskar questioned the preparations of the team.
You need to play practice matches: Sunil Gavaskar
India played only one intra-squad match before the Centurion Test. However, Gavaskar is against intra-squad matches, saying that the bowlers wouldn’t bowl full throttle in the fear of injuring their own batters.
When asked about the reason for India’s loss, Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports: “The reasons are straightforward, you didn’t play any matches here. If you straightaway play Test matches, it doesn’t work out. Yes, you sent the India A team. The India A team should actually come before the tour.”
“You need to play practice matches after coming here. Intra-squad is a joke because would your fast bowlers bowl extremely fast to your batters, would they bowl bouncers, as they would be scared about injuring their batters,” Gavaskar added.
India managed scores of 245 and 131 with only KL Rahul and Virat Kohli reaching landmarks of century and half-century respectively. The bowling fell off drastically after the opening spells of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna leaked heavy runs. Dean Elgar’s 185, along with Bedingham’s 56 and Jansen’s 84* meant South Africa posted a huge total of 408, batting India out of the game.
Gavaskar added that India should learn the lesson from their mistake of not playing proper first-class or practice matches in this tour, and should organise pre-series games when they tour Australia next year for a 5-Test series in December.
Check out the video here:
Play some practice matches before the tests on foreign tours to get use to the conditions.
~ Sunil Gavaskarpic.twitter.com/WDcwTTdPEn
— Cricketopia (@CricketopiaCom) December 29, 2023
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