Gavaskar slams Indian team management for the mess; wants KL Rahul to go home
Sunil Gavaskar has been quite critical of the Indian Test team ever since the Test series against Australia began in Adelaide. He was first baffled by Virat Kohli's captaincy decisions in the second Test and also questioned his batting in the first.
After suffering a big loss in the second Test, Gavaskar had quite a lot to say about a few decisions made by the team and the team management. He was extremely critical about the way Prithvi Shaw's fitness was handled and felt that India should have gotten a replacement for him much sooner if they knew he was going to miss the entire series.
"The one assessing Prithvi Shaw must be taken to task. He lied or else India could have flown in his replacement earlier and got him acclimatized," was heard saying on air.
He also felt that KL Rahul should have been dropped from the squad for the next two Tests and should go back and play the Ranji Trophy for Karnataka to gain back his form. "Send Rahul back and ask him to play Ranji," he was heard saying.
Gavaskar did not like the fact that India have named as many as 19 players for the upcoming two Tests. "Having 19 players for two Tests is a joke," he said.
Agarwal and Hardik Pandya were the new faces in the squad while Prithvi Shaw was sent back home to recover from his injury. There have also been reports emerging that Rohit Sharma will head home mid-way through the Test series to attend to his wife who is due to give birth to their first child.
The Indian cricket team will have an eight-day rest period before the all-important Boxing Day Test commences at the MCG in Melbourne on December 26.