After India hammered England by an innings and 64 runs in the last Test in Dharamsala, Gavaskar said England don’t have any excuse for ‘whining and moaning’.
Sunil Gavaskar became a world-beating Test opener at a time when the Indian team was not considered much of a threat when touring overseas. Test victories outside the subcontinent were too few and far in between and when playing in Australia or England, the battle for the Indian side was not just restricted to the cricket field. It was way more than that. But times have changed. India not only look the opposition in the eye but are also given the respect that they deserve. Well, almost.
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates the wicket of England’s skipper Ben Stokes(ANI )
Despite India being the only team to win more Tests away from home than losing in the last decade, there is a section of the cricketing world that still equates India’s success to home wins. And Gavaskar, quite correctly, has a problem with that. The legendary cricketer has been quite vocal against the touring sides complaining about pitches that offer turn from Day 1 in India. India don’t have anything to say when it swings and seems right throughout the Test match in England, South Africa, New Zealand or Australia, is Gavaskar’s logic.
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It’s hard to argue against that. India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin too has made his thoughts about it clear. Before the start of the England tour of India, Gavaskar had made it clear that the English media would “whine” and “cry” about the pitches in India whenever their team started to lose.
As it turned out, the pitches during the five Tests in Hyderabad, Vizag, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala were the sporting ones providing a good chance for the batters, pacers and obviously the spinners to leave an impact. India outplayed England in every discipline to take the series 4-1.
To be fair to the England team and their media, barring a few hues and cries here and there, the talk around the pitches was limited. After India hammered England by an innings and 64 runs in the last Test in Dharamsala, Gavaskar said England were beaten fair and square.
“There is no excuse for regular whining and moaning, they (England) have beaten fair and square,” Gavaskar said on commentary.
‘Can’t a run a marathon like it’s 100-metre race’
Former India spinner Murali Kartik, who was there with Gavaskar in the commentary box, blamed England’s one-way approach for the debacle in the series.
“You can’t run a marathon like a 100-metre. If you do, you’d be gasping for breath. Even in marathons, there are phases where you need to consolidate your energy. In a Test match, if you bat one way, you can rarely come out on top. They haven’t just trusted their defence,” Kartik said.
Head coach Brendon McCullum, the pioneer of Bazball approach, talked about England’s series defeat and admitted that the team needed to change some things in their approach to deliver consistent results.
“India probably outplayed us at the style of cricket that we want to play and made us start to retreat a little bit so that’s something that we will have to change,” McCullum said as quoted on Telegraph.
“If anything we got more timid as the series went on. It is something we need to address because other teams will put us under pressure as well and we can’t really allow that doubt to creep into our game. We need to have total conviction in what we are doing in those pressure situations,” he added.
