Former India captain and legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar has continuously criticised Team India captain Rohit Sharma and his brigade, including the coaching staff since the time they were defeated by Australia in the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final. Gavaskar questioned the team management on Ravichandran Ashwin's non-selection, decision to bowl first after winning the toss and lack of a potent bouncer strategy against Travis Head among others.
The legendary figure once again targeted the Indian skipper and said when the Hitman was appointed as the skipper of India, he was expected to do more with his experience and the bunch of skillful players at his disposal.
"I expected more from him (Rohit). In India it is different, but when you do well overseas that is really the test. That is where he has been a little disappointing. Even in the T20 format, with all the experience of the IPL, hundreds of matches as captain, with a mix of best IPL players not being able to get to the finals has been disappointing," Gavaskar was quoted as saying during The Indian Express Idea Exchange.
Gavaskar also voiced his frustration with the coaching staff, including head coach Rahul Dravid. The coach-captain duo of Dravid and Rohit failed to take India to the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup before the WTC debacle. With the team boasting some of the best players in the world, India have somehow underwhelmed in big tournaments.
Gavaskar opined that there is no accountability currently and questioned the job which the other coaching staff of Indian cricket team are doing at the moment.
"If the batters are making the same mistakes over and over again, you need to ask what has happened with your technique. How have you tried to improve the batter? Have you tried to tell him, maybe take a different guard. Don’t take a leg-stump guard, take a middle and off stump guard," he opined.
"I remember once calling Virender Sehwag out of the blue. He had not been scoring too many runs. I told him, ‘Viru, just try the off-stump guard’. So he asked, ‘Why, Sunny bhai?’ So I told him, ‘Look, you aren’t known for great footwork. What is happening is, sometimes when you are getting out, you are reaching out for the delivery and it makes things difficult for you. So, maybe if you take the off-stump guard, you straight away know that the ball is outside the off-stump’. That is where the coach can come in with his inputs," he added.
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