The poor performance of Indian team in the second Test against England at Lord’s have invited criticisms from many veteran cricketers as well as fans. India lost to England by a little margin of 31 runs in the first Test at Edgbaston, but in the second Test, Indian team faced a huge defeat by an innings and 159 runs.
Now, Indian former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has again lashed out on the Indian team for the irresponsibility they are showing towards the practice session. Gavaskar had earlier called the lack of preparation behind the defeat of India in the first Test. He also slammed five day break taken by the Indian team ahead of first Test.
Now, Gavaskar has criticised the Indian team for being in London for longer time, instead of heading to Nottingham, where the third Test will be played between India and England. “I can understand they have taken the day off today they are still licking the wounds of the defeat at Lord’s but they should have been planning to leave for Nottingham after today which would have been the last day of the Lord’s Test and practice from tomorrow,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today on Monday.
He also stressed the practice will be a lot helpful for next Test at Trent Bridge. “But clearly as we have seen from the start of the ODI series, they are in love with London. You cannot get practice facilities in London as easily as you would in Nottingham – I hope they practice from Tuesday. And there should be no optional practice. Everybody needs to get down to practice. There’s no such thing as optional practice when you are 0-2 down,” he added.
He also stressed that practice matches are also very important and India should play them between third and fourth test. “You don’t just need net practice but practice matches also. One should strive for practice games between third and fourth Test as well when there is space. There may possibly be some new players coming in after third Test and they need some practice time as well. These things have to be thought about. I have been saying this since January when the South Africa tour was lost. But perhaps we are old fashioned, who don’t understand modern day cricket,” concluded Gavaskar.