The Indian national cricket team may have won the three-match T20 series against Zimbabwe 3-0, but batting great Sunil Gavaskar was not completely satisfied with the team’s overall performance. Sunil Gavaskar has strongly criticized India’s poor fielding and said that the selectors should not ignore the repeated mistakes on the field.
Even though the Men in Blue completed the clean sweep, they dropped several catches and committed several fielding errors during the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe.
Gavaskar believes that due to these mistakes, India may have to lose big matches in future, hence such players should not be given a regular place in the playing eleven. Meanwhile, Deep Dasgupta bets for Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma’s 2027 World Cup hopes.
Sunil Gavaskar demands strict action against India’s poor fielders
India’s fielding has been a major concern for the Indian national cricket team recently. Before the Zimbabwe tour, the Men in Blue had a disappointing tour of Ireland and England.
India lost the two-match T20I series against Ireland 2–0 and then suffered a 4–0 defeat in the T20I and a 2–1 defeat in the ODI series against England. Seeing these demonstrations, Sunil Gavaskar has demanded the removal of bad fielders.
He said that every player should save runs and take catches because fielding is now as important as batting and bowling. He believes that if a player is not good in the field then the selectors should take a tough decision, no matter how talented the player is with bat or ball. Meanwhile, Abhishek Sharma is under pressure! The former BCCI selector supported Sanju Samson’s return to the India XI.
Sunil Gavaskar raised questions on India’s batting and poor fielding.
Sportstar quoted Sunil Gavaskar as saying, “It is inevitable that if a player is an average fielder, he has to be shown the way out. There is no way a captain has to hide three or four players, hoping that the ball will not go close to them.”
The former Indian captain further added, “Shot selection is very important, and here the batsman has to rein in his ego and not try to live up to an image but play the ball on its merits.
Yes, in the ultra-short format, T20, it is not easy to do this, as big shots are required on almost every second ball. But it is different in the ODI format, where there is time to cool down for a while before the power shots come out.
“Stop playing careless cricket”: Sunil Gavaskar criticizes India’s batting
Apart from fielding, Sunil Gavaskar also questioned India’s batting approach in the recent white-ball series. He believes that the Indian batsmen have not shown enough awareness towards the match, especially during the England tour. They failed to chase 183 in one match and then could not reach 155 in the next game.
Cricket pundits believe that the Indian batsmen are trying to play too many aggressive shots without understanding the match situation. He admitted that T20 cricket is an aggressive format, but that does not mean that batsmen should play reckless cricket.
Gavaskar further explained, “It is important to play smart cricket. So find the bowler who does not need to counter-attack. Then target those bowlers against whom you can compensate for the quiet overs from the better bowler.”
“No team in the world has five top bowlers, and in a T20 game there will always be eight to 12 overs where runs can be plundered. Similarly, in the 50-over format, a little patience won’t hurt, even if the team is chasing a big score like 380-plus.”