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Sunil Gavaskar reckons that it is now time for the Indian team to back their promising young stars after the senior batters dissapointing performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Reddy have been India’s best batters in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. (Image: AFP)
The legendary Indian batter, Sunil Gavaskar called on the national team to shift their focus on the youngsters that have shown potential after the side suffered a 3-1 series defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
He reckons that the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Reddy and other young Indian stars are ‘hungry’ to perform and is a quality that is needed within this Indian team. Jaiswal finished as India’s highest run-scorer with 391 runs. His best knock was 161 runs in Perth. He struggled briefly but found his touch with 82 and 84 in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Nitish Reddy was the surprise package of the Indian team. Despite batting lower down the order, he was able to showcase his class with handy contributions of 41 and 38 on debut. He had two scores of 42 as well after which he went big to score his maiden Test ton as well.
“If we talk about the macro picture like we saw with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Yashasvi Jaiswal – they are hungry. They are hungry to earn a name for India. They are hungry to earn a name for themselves. Such players are needed. You need such players who will protect their wicket like their life. You need such players. You can play with them on stroke. But the commitment I want to see,” Gavaskar shared on Star Sports.
Gavaskar was critical of the Indian batting unit which has been disappointing to say the least. While the younger bunch had their fair share of performances, the senior lot was not able to conquer the challenge of facing the Australian bowling attack.
Gavaskar asked,” How many Indian players have scored centuries? Except for the first Test match with two centuries, there is only the century of Nitish Kumar Reddy. How many players made half-centuries?”
“You can say it is not easy to make a century, but how many players made half-centuries and tried to turn the match? It did not happen because the application that is required in Test cricket – the application and determination – was very low,” he added.
Reflecting on the Indian senior batters’s disappointing outing, Gavaskar remains curious to see who will take the domestic route to work on their technical flaws. After the poor run of form, he reckons that there should not be any reason for the international stars to not play in the upcoming Ranji Trophy games.
“Today is January 5. On January 23, there is the next round of the Ranji Trophy. Let’s see how many players from this squad play. Let’s see how many people are available. And there should be no excuse for not being able to play,” he added.
- Location :
Sydney, Australia
