New Delhi: Two legends of world cricket, Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan today held IPL responsible for the Indian team’s recent downfall, with the former going on to say that for some Indian players national duty comes second to the cash-rich Twenty20 league.
Without naming anyone, Gavaskar questioned some Indian players’ complete focus on IPL.
“If you look at the events that took place immediately after the 2011 World Cup, you will know the guys who actually took their places for granted, those who did not make themselves available and preferred to play in the IPL and then go for surgeries,” Gavaskar said.
“I think those are the guys who instead of looking at India were looking at contributing for their IPL franchises. If at all you need to take a rest, you need to take a rest from club matches,” he told NDTV, when asked about India’s ODI series loss to Pakistan.
Gavaskar also blamed the team’s batting department for India’s shoddy performance as the hosts gave Pakistan an unassailable 0-2 lead in the three-ODI series at the Eden Gardens last evening.
“It’s the batsmen, they are the ones who are known much more than bowlers (in India). They are the ones who are responsible. Indian batsmen are terribly out of form since 2011 World Cup. They have struck form sporadically,” he said.
Gavaskar’s views were supported by Imran, who too feels that IPL has a big role to play in Indian cricket team’s decline in the past one year.
“Unless Indian cricket deals with IPL, unless you work out a balance between Test cricket and Twenty20 cricket and the commercial aspect of IPL, Indian cricket will go down rapidly,” the former Pakistan skipper warned.
former captain Zaheer Abbas, who feels the host team looks jaded after playing too much cricket.
The defeat against Pakistan marks another low for the struggling Indians who suffered an embarrassing Test series debacle against England at home.
“I did not expect such wins. It was a battle of nerves and Pakistan did better to win it. On the contrary, the Indian players were tired. They have played too much cricket recently and have not performed to the potential,” Abbas said.
Abbas, who has scored 5082 runs in 78 Tests and 2572 runs in 62 ODIs, was one of the most successful Pakistani batsmen against India.
He scored six centuries, including two double, in Tests and three ODI hundreds against the arch-rivals. He lauded the Misbah-ul-Haq led Pakistan’s team work.
“Pakistan has done exceptionally well. Nasir (Jamshed) and (Mohammed) Hafeez were particularly brilliant with the bat while bowlers like Umar (Gul), Junaid (Khan) and (Saeed) Ajmal did not let the famed Indian batting line-up open their hands,” said the veteran who was widely known as ‘Asian Bradman’ for his run scoring abilities.
He said it was a daunting task to suffocate the Indian batsmen but Pakistani bowlers succeeded.
“Pakistani bowlers maintained an accurate line and length and none of the Indian top order batsmen could fire,” Abbas said.
He also felt that India are under additional pressure due to playing at home.
“Naturally there is additional pressure to perform in front of a home crowd and it tends to increase when India and Pakistan play each other. India was under pressure but we must give credit to the Pakistani team which has performed really well,” he said. (PTI)