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World Cup winner and legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar is not at all happy with the squad that has been announced for the upcoming tour of West Indies, especially the Test team. India are set to play a two-match series between 12-25 July with the top stars like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja travelling to the Caribbeans for the series.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Gavaskar revealed his frustration over the selection and said that the senior India stars are not getting enough rest ahead for the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, which is being hosted by India in October-November.
"Give them a break, give them a complete break. Look, they have finished on the 12th of June, give them a break till 20, 25th of July. I mean no Test matches, no travelling either. Now apparently this team is going to go for warm-up matches from the 1st or 2nd of July. So how many day's break have they had? Barely 20 days? Why not give them a 40-day break," Gavaskar told India Today, slamming the selection committee.
"Give them a complete 40-day break so when they comeback for the one days and the new season totally fresh," he further added.
He also opined that Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan's non-selection is an indication that the importance of the Ranji Trophy and the players playing in it has decreased.
Citing the example of Sarfaraz Khan, Sunil Gavaskar said that a batter's performance in India's domestic cricket should be recognised, "Sarfaraz Khan has been scoring runs at an average above 100 for the last three seasons. What else does he have to do to get selected for the team? Even if his place is not made in the playing eleven, he can be taken into the team."
Sarfaraz Khan, who plays domestically for Mumbai, has been consistently performing since 2020. He scored 556 runs in six matches at an average of 92.66 in the 2022-21 season, including three centuries. Earlier in the 2021-22 season, he scored 982 runs in six matches at an average of 122.75 and was the highest run scorer, including four centuries.
In the 2019-20 season, he scored 928 runs in six matches at an average of 154.66 with three centuries to his name. In total, he has scored 10 centuries in three seasons and amassed a total of 2466 runs. In the last three seasons, no other Indian batter has been able to score so many runs in domestic cricket.
"Tell him that his performance is being watched. Otherwise, stop playing Ranji Trophy. Say that it has no meaning. Play only IPL and understand that he can also play red-ball cricket well," Gavaskar added about the 25-year-old batter.
India's Test squad for West Indies
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini
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