"Having rested all the India bowlers, it won’t be easy to see which batter is good" - Sunil Gavaskar opens up on 2024 Duleep Trophy regret
Legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar regretted the absence of the star bowlers from the senior side in the ongoing 2024 Duleep Trophy. With the India-Bangladesh Test series starting on September 19, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja haven't partaken in the opening two rounds of the Duldeep Tropy.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami is still recovering from his ankle injury, while Mohammad Siraj has also not featured in the Duleep Trophy.
In his column for the Mid Day, Gavaskar felt the main bowlers being absent makes it hard to judge the true caliber of the batters playing in the tournament.
"This time, having rested all the India bowlers, it won’t be easy to see which batter is good as they would be playing basically second string bowlers. So while the matches would be good tuning for the season to come, the selectors won’t get much insight how good the batters really are," wrote Gavaskar.
Gavaskar also called on the Indian stars to play domestic cricket when there are no international games.
"If Indian cricket has to remain strong then it’s important that the domestic structure is strong too. That means scheduling the red-ball tournament in such a way that those playing for the country should also be available for at least some part of the Ranji and Duleep Trophy matches. Otherwise, it will only be a false dawn as far as talent is concerned," he added.
Despite the star bowlers' absence, several Team India batters have played in the opening two rounds of the Duleep Trophy.
The final round, which will run parallel to the India-Bangladesh first Test, might see more Team India players absent.
"Some of the players, lucky enough to get picked for the IPL are quickly found out in the highly competitive season-end spectacle" - Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar felt the numerous state T20 Leagues being played in India do not provide evidence of a batter or bowler's ability due to the lack of high-quality challengers.
Despite the IPL being India's bread and butter for T20 cricket, most prominent states have conducted T20 Leagues of their own to develop local players.
"The many state premier leagues going on are a perfect example of that. From all these games there will probably be at best a few players who will have a long career. Scoring runs or taking wickets in these state leagues doesn’t really mean much because the quality of cricket is not high. Some of the players, lucky enough to get picked for the IPL are quickly found out in the highly competitive season-end spectacle," Gavaskar wrote in the same column.
Gavaskar compared the State League games to matches between the Associate nations on the international stage.
"Their scores in these state leagues are pretty much like most of the matches between Associate member countries. Here, some teams get bowled out for scores as low as 20 and some batters are hammering 100s and sixers every other ball. Then we get to read that someone has equalled Yuvraj Singh’s record of hitting six sixes in one over and has gone on to score the fastest 50 in T20 internationals," concluded Gavaskar.
Gavaskar's claims were about Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee scoring a 10-ball 52 with the help of six maximums in an over against Mongolia in the 2023 Asian Games.
It vaulted Airee above Yuvraj Singh for the fastest T20I half-century as he reached the milestone off just nine deliveries compared to Yuvraj's 12.