India legend Sunil Gavaskar has once again highlighted the importance of playing domestic cricket.
Writing in his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar took a slight dig at the national selectors and advised them to prioritise players who perform consistently in domestic cricket.
“The defeat to South Africa will hopefully open the eyes of those who matter to look at the heavy scorers in domestic cricket, who are used to playing on pitches where the ball spins and keeps low. The international players are so busy playing overseas that they do not have practice playing on domestic pitches, and so are found wanting.”
India failed to chase down a 124-run target against South Africa in the first Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Except for Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, nobody could make a mark. Seven out of the eleven batters could not even reach double figures. Many experts later blamed the pitch, but Gavaskar believed that the main reason for India’s loss was the batters’ inability to handle spin.
For the last few days, Gavaskar has been vocal about players not giving importance to domestic cricket.
A few days ago, speaking to Sports Tak, he said: “A lot of our players do not play domestic cricket. If you play domestic cricket, you will get to play on such pitches, right? Because even at the domestic level, teams are trying to get the points so that they qualify for the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, which means that there will be pitches where the ball will grip and turn a little bit. But none of our players are playing that. None of our current players. How many of our current players actually deign to go down and play Ranji Trophy?”
India are set to play the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati from November 22.
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