India vs West Indies 2018: It Pains You A Little Bit To See West Indies This Way: Sunil Gavaskar

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar said he is pained with the current state of West Indies cricket. The legendary batsman made his remark after the Caribbean outfit’s dismal show in the first two days of the ongoing Test in Rajkot.

That West Indies will not be able to pose much of a threat to the hosts was very much on the cards. However, there spectacular capitulation has surprised many including Sunil Gavaskar.  The visitors have not competed against at all. So far, they have failed in all the departments. Not surprisingly, they are on the brink of suffering a heavy loss.

Asked to bowl first, they started proceedings on a good note with Shannon Gabriel dismissing KL Rahul for a duck in the very first over. But from there on, it has been an one-way traffic in favour of India.

Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja scored centuries while Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant scored fifties as India posted a mammoth 649 for 9.

The latest game has further showed West Indies’ dwindling fortunes in the game. The current scenario of West Indies cricket is in stark contrast to what it used to be when Gavaskar used to play. And the former India batsman is pained to see West Indies’ current positiion.

“This is not the best of West Indian sides we have seen from the past. But we must not forget Indian teams have also been beaten inside three days in the past. Their batting approach was a little hard to understand. Nobody was ready to buckle down,” Gavaskar told India Today.

“Yes Kraigg Braithwaite got a peach of a delivery but the other batsmen looked like they wanted to hit their way out of trouble.

“It pains you a little bit to see West Indies this way. I hope they will get back to being very, very competitive like they were in the past,” he added.

West Indies ended the day on 94 for 6. Mohammed Shami removed both West Indies openers, bowling stand-in captain Kraigg Brathwaite and trapping Kieran Powell lbw.

Shai Hope was then bowled by off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin before Shimron Hetmyer was run out in a comical fashion. Jadeja had Ambris caught at first slip and left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav knocked over Shane Dowrich’s stumps to leave the visitors on the brink of a heavy defeat.