Table of Contents
Sunil Gavaskar, a former captain of India, claimed that the country’s first-choice playing XI struggled to establish a rhythm during the Asia Cup because they hadn’t practised together as much as one might have anticipated in the months leading up to the continental competition.
Addressing India today, Sunil Gavaskar stated that India need to cease their experiments and put an end to the conversation about “workload management” in the run-up to the T20 World Cup after Sri Lanka delivered India a virtually decisive blow in their Super 4 encounter on Tuesday, September 6.
The illustrious batsman advised the Indian side to play their starting XI at full strength against Australia and South Africa at home in order to give the starters more playing time to prepare for the T20 World Cup in October.
You Get Into Sync When The Whole Team Is Playing: Sunil Gavaskar
Before leaving for the World Cup in Australia, India will play a three-match T20I series against Australia and South Africa at home from September 20 to October 4.
“It has not come about (sync) because you haven’t had the same team playing. You get into a sync when the whole team is playing. You try to experiment, there is nothing wrong with that.
There are always 3 or 4 places up for grabs in a team and in the process of trying to identify those players, you try to go in with different teams. What that did was obviously, you know, when other players come back into the team, the sync will take a longer time,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
As players were rested for bilateral series leading up to the Asia Cup, India experimented with their team lineup. Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, for example, haven’t participated in all bilateral assignments in 2022 since they were rested for the West Indies and Zimbabwe tours in July and August.
When You Are Playing For India, There Is No Workload: Sunil Gavaskar
Prior to the Asia Cup, the Indian team management, led by head coach Rahul Dravid, prioritised fatigue management, therefore the majority of the key first-choice players, including captain Rohit Sharma, were rested for the trip to Zimbabwe.
Dravid has frequently emphasised that he wants his important players to be rested for the main ICC competitions and that, despite important players seldom playing together, the think tank is confident in the starting 15 for the T20 World Cup.
“I would have thought that prior to the Asia Cup, the tour of Zimbabwe was the one where the majority of the players who were going to play the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup should have been selected.
Now, suddenly, you have got 4-5 guys coming in, guys who had done well in Zimbabwe are not in the XI, not even in the squad. So the sync will take time to come,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
“Yes, there is a touch of worry. I am not overly worried, because we have got a few matches coming up at home before the T20 World Cup. There, I hope, no experiments will take place.
“You’ll pick the squad that is going to go to Australia and play. Stop talking about workload and all that, when you are playing for India, there’s no workload. You just got to get your best team out in the park for the coming matches in India.
“Now with the exit from the Asia Cup, you have got 2-3 days of extra rest. You take that rest and start getting together in Mohali for the Australia series.
Sunil Gavaskar Wants Indian Team To Be Ready For World Cup Clash Against Pakistan
For the matches against South Africa and Australia, the same side plus one or two standbys will be used. They will then have much more time to rest in the middle as a result. We frequently discuss “time in the middle” and “overs under the belt,” but we haven’t experienced either of those things, he continued.
Sunil Gavaskar advised India to make the proper preparations for the T20 World Cup, where they would play Pakistan in their opening match.
India famously trounced Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2022 opener, but Babar Azam’s team dealt them a severe setback in the opening game of the Super 4 round. On Sunday, Pakistan beat India by 5 wickets.
“The first match of the World Cup is against Pakistan. You don’t want any of your players to go undercooked, I would rather want them to go overcooked.
“Forget the Asia Cup, focus now on these matches coming up.”
