Sunil Gavaskar questions team’s unity, urges BCCI to send players to tours in one group

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has opined that it didn’t send the right message to Australia when Indian players arrived in the country in different batches. Gavaskar wants the Board of Control for Cricket in India to send all the players, especially senior players, in one group.

India suffered a 1-3 loss in the Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia as they could not come up with a collective effort. Before the Australia tour, India also suffered a 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand despite playing at home. 

Gavaskar wants the senior players to arrive together with the main support staff to set the right tone.

Writing in his column for Sportstar, Sunny Gavaskar said, “The mistakes that were made in Australia should not be repeated. The team should arrive in England in one group and not in four batches as was done in Australia. For the first two days in Australia, the team was without captain, vice-captain and coach. What kind of a message does it send to the home team?”

“That here’s a team that has arrived with no leadership group and can be easily broken with a few tough performances. Surely the BCCI will not allow this to happen again. Yes, the odd player who is recovering from injury can join the team later, but the leaders must be the first to arrive to make a statement that the team is ready for battle.”

Gavaskar said the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel should not pick a Test team based on performances in the white-ball format.

“The next few months are all going to be about limited-overs cricket and the IPL. White-ball performances should not blind us to the deficiencies in Test cricket. These need to be addressed too, as the new cycle for the World Test Championship final begins with the five-Test match series against England from mid-June,” Gavaskar wrote in the same column.

India will next host England for five T20Is and three ODIs.