In a two-pronged attack on the selectors, the former India opener told Sports Tak that the selection committee had missed an opportunity to send the young players to West Indies. He noted that West Indies are not the same team they once were and if a young player performs well in the Caribbean, he will get a confidence boost that will help him in future encounters against bigger teams like Australia, England or New Zealand.

Without naming anyone, Gavaskar noted that the senior players in the team that 4-5 players in the current test team that are a certainty for the 50 over World Cup should have been given a complete break and they should not be made to play the longer format of the game till the end of ODI World Cup. 

He said to Sports Tak, “They have been playing non-stop cricket since October-November last year. And apart from injury breaks, they have not really got long breaks. So give them a complete break from red-ball cricket. The certainties who would be playing the 50-over World Cup. You have given Shami a break so maybe the others too,”

The legendary batter argued that this West Indies series is not going to tell anything new about the established players. He also claimed that it isn’t clear if these same players will be available for the WTC Final after two years. 

Gavaskar had also questioned the omission of Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad against the West Indies. Gavaskar pointed out that Pujara had been a loyal servant of Indian cricket and was left out because he did not have millions of followers on social media platforms who would make noise about his omission.

Updated: 25 Jun 2023, 08:28 AM IST