Sunil Gavaskar isn’t pulling punches. He’s making sure everyone knows the unhappiness he has towards the new generation and their way of preparation. After getting whitewashed for the first time in India’s Test history, Gavaskar has taken a sly dig at Team India’s biggest superstars at the moment, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. He compared their training with the legend from the previous generation, Sachin Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar, the perfectionist
He cited how Tendulkar prepared for the 1998 series at home against Australia. “That’s the reason why Sachin Tendulkar was Sachin Tendulkar. He was so fiercely proud of what he could do and what he wanted to do for the team. Don’t forget the 200 at the Brabourne Stadium for Ranji champions Mumbai and the visiting Australian team. Then when he went to Chennai, he asked Laxman Sivaramakrishnan to come and go around the wicket, create a rough around that area so that he could practice that slog sweep and the inside out shot against Shane Warne,” Gavaskar told India Today.
Kohli-Rohit’s extra rest makes Indian fans restless
In contrast, Kohli and Rohit, who hadn’t played Test cricket since early March, chose to rest for a month in between the Sri Lanka tour and Bangladesh series at home. Of course, both have already rested for nearly a month after they’d won the T20 World Cup 2024. Yet, they decided that it’s better to skip the Duleep Trophy 2024 and play their first red-ball game directly against Bangladesh in September. The result is for everyone to see: Team India beat the Tigers but were humiliated by New Zealand, who didn’t even have their batter, Kane Williamson.
“So that is the kind of preparation why Sachin Tendulkar has got almost 16,000 runs in Test cricket and 100 international centuries. So, I think that is the kind of preparation that everybody needs to do. If you don’t do it, then the gaps that are there will always be that little body speed and back speed situation, which takes a long time to get back,” Gavaskar added.
Virat Kohli-Rohit Sharma against Bangladesh & New Zealand
| Mat | Runs | Avg | 50s | 100s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | 5 | 133 | 13.30 | 1 | 0 |
| Virat Kohli | 5 | 192 | 21.33 | 1 | 0 |
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