PERTH: Utility of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri as captain and coach must be assessed if India fail to win the next two Tests against Australia, suggested batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, who is baffled by the “selection blunders” committed by the team management.
India lost the Perth Test by 146 runs to allow the hosts level the four-match series 1-1. India went in with four specialist pacers while Australia picked spinner Nathan Lyon, who eventually tuned out to be the difference between the two sides. Gavaskar was not impressed with the selection choices made by the team management. “We have been seeing this – the selection blunders that have been committed since the tour of South Africa. It has cost the team because it has lost matches which could’ve been won if the proper selection had been made,” Gavaskar said.
“They have to look at the combination of their team, look at the hole that needs to be plugged and pick the men to. If they do that then they can certainly win the next two matches but if they don’t, and that too against this Australian team which does not have Steve Smith or David Warner, then the selectors need to think whether we are getting any benefit from this lot – the captain, coach and support staff,” Gavaskar said. The former opener questioned the logic for picking a jumbo squad. “I want to find out that who has authorised 19 players to go because the next question is why not three more? The BCCI is a very rich body, it can afford to send even 40 people down there. However, I feel that an India cap, an Indian blazer has to be made a lot more valuable. … by carrying players and taking 19 players, I do believe that the selection committee has not handled their responsibility well,” he said.
Even former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar feels India made a mistake in not including a front- line spinner in the second Test that Australia won on Tuesday at Perth to square the four match series 1-1.
He said the team management should take the blame for selections which have “back-fired. “(Australian spinner) Nathon Lyon is a great bowler, so we can’t assume that a (Ravindra) Jadeja would have been as effective (as him). “But India, I think, made an error in going with four seamers, specially (with) Umesh Yadav and not Bhuvneshwar Kumar,” Manjrekar, an expert with Sony Pictures Networks, tsaid. (PTI)
