"You should be prepared to face any difficulties for the nation" - Sunil Gavaskar on England's rotation policy
Sunil Gavaskar has said the England players should be ready to face some amount of hardship when they are representing their country.
The England team rotated their players through the Test series against India. While Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali left for home in the middle of the tour, some of their accomplished players like Jonny Bairstow were only available after the second Test.
During a discussion on Aaj Tak about England's rotation policy, Sunil Gavaskar mentioned the players should be willing to make some sacrifices when they are playing for the nation.
"This rotation policy or workload management is difficult to understand. I agree it is not easy to be in a bio-bubble, I have also been in one since the beginning of September. But when you play for your country, you should be prepared to face any difficulties for the nation. If you are not ready for that, how will you give your best for the country," said Gavaskar.
Sunil Gavaskar highlighted the Indian team was also in a similar situation and rose to the occasion both in Australia and the home series against England.
The cricketer-turned-commentator was particularly appreciative of Washington Sundar's partnerships with Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel when India was in a spot of bother in the just-concluded Test match.
"Even our team was in the bubble but you saw how they fought in Australia and here also when the situation was tough, six wickets were down for 146, two youngsters in Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar put on such a good partnership and after that the partnership between Sundar and Axar Patel. When you get a chance to play for your nation, which milllions want, and you go home talking about workload, this is what will happen," added Sunil Gavaskar.
Most of the England batsmen did not give confidence to their supporters: Sunil Gavaskar
On being asked about England crossing the 200-mark only once post the first Test in Chennai, Sunil Gavaskar observed none of the visiting batsmen other than Joe Root and Ben Stokes to a certain extent instilled confidence in their supporters.
"If you see their batting, other than Joe Root and Ben Stokes in one or two innings, they did not have any batsman who could give confidence to the England supporters. In the earlier days, when the England batting lineup was chosen, they used to pick players who have played 5-6 years of county cricket and have 10-15 hundreds," said Gavaskar.
The former Indian cricketer pointed out the England team opting to go the subcontinent route of blooding youngsters seems to have backfired.
"Now they have started a new process, just like India or Pakistan who give debut to 17 to 20-year-olds, they have also started thinking like that. That is why players like Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley, who are young but do not have the experience. The technique that is requred, which you get after playing county cricket, they did not have that and because of that Joe Root was alone and how long will he fight. And when the ball started spinning slightly, Joe Root also got confused and he also did not know how to play," concluded Sunil Gavaskar.
Joe Root was the only England batsman to average more than thirty in the just-concluded Test series. Their batsmen seemed all at sea once they were confronted with spinning tracks post the first Test in Chennai.