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Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif went on a rant as India failed to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and suffered a 3-1 loss at the hands of Pat Cummins' Australia. While there has been widespread criticism of the head coach Gautam Gambhir, senior players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Kaif feels that all will be forgotten once India beat Pakistan in their upcoming high-voltage ICC Champions Trophy 2025 clash on February 23. He went on to say that changes at domestic level need to be done, especially to pitches to help batters prepare batter for seaming conditions overseas.
"On 23rd February India will earn a lot of praise by beating Pakistan (in Champions Trophy) and everyone will say we are a champion team in white-ball cricket. But if India want to team the World Test Championship then we will have to make a Test match team, will have to learn to play on seaming tracks. The truth is that we are just white-ball bullies. We are lagging too far behind. If we have to win WTC, then players will have to play domestic cricket on turning tracks, will have to practice on seaming tracks, otherwise we will not be able to win," Kaif said in a video he posted on X.
Why players skip Ranji Trophy?
Kaif did not just blame players for skipping Ranji Trophy but the scheduling of events as well. He said that the players opt to rest between series and big tournaments than represent their respective state sides in Ranji Trophy.
"India lost 1-3, and I think this is a wake-up call, because now we have to pay our attention towards Test cricket. It's not just Gautam Gambhir who is at fault. All players get the chance to play Ranji Trophy, but it gets tiresome for the players and they prefer rest over playing Ranji Trophy. They don't play Ranji Trophy, they don't play practice matches then how will they become better players? It's tough to play on turning tracks in India and tougher to play on seaming tracks in Australia and South Africa. So if you don't practice well, WTC will keep eluding you. What has happened, it has happened for the good and now Team India needs to work hard in Test cricket," he added.
Last year, before the home season began, several Indian players turned up to play Duleep Trophy. However, senior pros missed the encounters which led to widespread criticism. India are yet to win a WTC title. They were consistent enough to reach the final the first two times. However, series whitewash to New Zealand at home and failure to retain BGT led to them getting knocked out of the race. India's next Test assignment is a five-Test series on English soil after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
