London: Former England captain Nasser Hussain has questioned the “attitude” of some of India’s “God-like” cricketers, and also doubted their hunger to succeed in Test cricket.
He handpicked some of Indian cricket’s big names and questioned their commitment towards Tests in the wake of the India’s back-to-back defeats in the ongoing series against England.
“India have big questions to answer in the aftermath of the Kolkata Test and the biggest surrounds the attitude of their near God-like top names,” Hussain wrote in his column for a British newspaper.
“When the likes of MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and the rest went back to their hotel rooms after that defeat in the third Test, how much were they hurting? How much hunger for the long-haul form of the game – with its mental and physical demands – have these multi-millionaire players still got?
“Are they thinking, deep down, ‘Never mind’, and prioritising instead the fun, glamour and huge financial rewards that come from the Indian Premier League?”
“(Coach Duncan) Fletcher will want to look into the eyes of Dhoni, Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and even (Sachin) Tendulkar to see how much hunger they have,” he wrote.
Hussain feels India desperately need a win in the last Test in Nagpur, beginning on December 13 to redeem their battered reputation to some extent.
“That is the crux of the issue now for India. The last thing their cricket needs, really, is a win in Nagpur and a share of this series because all that would do is paper over the cracks.
“India left Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh out of their squad for the final Test, but it is attitude as much as personnel that need to change,” he said. (PTI)