As the Indian middle-order failed in the second Test against England, former opener Sunil Gavaskar has now stressed upon the importance of playing the Ranji Trophy. He went to the extent of saying that the Indian players should have played a couple of Ranji matches, before the England series.
In his Mid-Day column, Gavaskar wrote, “What [When] the batters’ failure to get big runs also shows how important it is before a Test match series for both batters and bowlers to play some first-class [Ranji] games and get themselves in the right frame of mind for the longer format of the game.”
“The Ranji Trophy had started, and it would have been perfect timing for the batters to get into the groove for the Test series by playing a couple of games.”
Captain Rohit Sharma failed to score big, and so did Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, and Rajat Patidar. The only solace was Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double century and Shubman Gill’s third ton.
Gavaskar added, “Test cricket is a five-day format, and while most Test matches finish well within that and often with a day or so to spare, as was seen by the unforgettable innings from Ollie Pope and now from young Jaiswal, there is scope to play a match-defining and game-changing innings.”
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