Bazball vs Jaisball might be over, but the war of words is still alive. The English cricket team made several outrageous comments through the 5-match Test series, but Sunil Gavaskar has decided to have the final say. After their 4-1 drubbing, the former Indian skipper called out English players for their ‘smug attitude’ ahead of the IPL 2024 season.
Claiming that Australians have released the powerhouse Indian cricket has become and therefore acclimated to the changing landscape, in his column for Sportstar, he wrote:
“The Aussies are likeable and don’t have the supercilious attitude that the Poms generally have. That perhaps explains why the acrimony that was seen between the Indian and Australian teams has vanished almost entirely, even though the intensity of the contests between the countries hasn’t reduced one bit.
Gavaskar claims English players are ‘jealous’ of IPL’s success
On English players being jealous of the amount of money Indian players are making and mocking them for their lack of international exploits, he wrote:
“Some of them can’t stomach the fees for which some of the Indian players are bought and compare their achievements at the international level when the IPL auction dynamics can be so volatile and hard to explain or even understand. So you see more lip in the India-England encounters than in any other India match. That’s why the pleasure of beating England is always greater.“
On the alterations we saw between India and England in the recently concluded serious and IPL franchises not going after English players, he wrote:
“That is also the reason why the England and Indian players get into verbal skirmishes so often when they are playing against each other. Not a lot of England players are picked in the IPL, mainly because they can be withdrawn by their Board anytime for a preparation camp or something, which leaves the franchises in a lurch.”
IPL 2024: English players to withdraw
| Player | Team | Reason |
| Mark Wood | LSG | Workload management |
| Gus Atkinson | KKR | No reason mentioned |
| Jason Roy | KKR | Personal reasons |
| Harry Brook | DC | Personal reasons |
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