After a sorry display by the Indian batting unit led to the team slumping to an innings defeat against South Africa at the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, a number of experts and former cricketers are questioning their preparedness for the key tour. (Scorecard | As It Happened)
One of the most prominent among them is batting great Sunil Gavaskar, who has singled out the Indian team not playing any practice matches as the major reason behind the abject surrender. Gavaskar went so far as to call India's intra-squad matches a 'joke', as he blasted Rohit Sharma and Co's move to not play any first-class practice games before the start of the two-Test series.
"The reasons are straightforward - you didn't play any matches here. If you straightaway play Test matches, it doesn't work out. Yes, you sent the India A team. The India A team should actually come before the tour," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
"You need to play practice matches after coming here. Intra-squad is a joke. Would your fast bowlers bowl extremely fast to your batters? Would they bowl bouncers? They would be scared about injuring their batters," the legendary batter added.
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The team management often cites the stark difference between practice pitches and match pitches as the rationale for not playing any tour games. But Gavaskar said practice matches are critical, especially for young players to gear up for the challenge.
"It's better to play against the South Africa A team or play two or three matches against a county or a state. The schedule that is made these days, where you play only Test matches with a gap of seven days in between - remove the 'workload' word from Indian cricket's dictionary.
"Nothing happens to senior cricketers. They will play the second, third and fourth match even if they fail. Practice matches are necessary for the young players. If you want, you can ask your senior players to come at ease, they can come a day before the Test match, but you need to arrange practice matches for the young players," Gavaskar further said.
