Southampton: While Virat Kohli stated that the England versus India Test series was a close affair even as the scoreline suggested that Joe Root and co won the series, with a Test still to be played, Sunil Gavaskar has not been impressed with India’s another series defeat away from home.
Gavaskar, the former Indian cricket team and one of the best opening batsmen the game has ever seen, had earlier questioned Hardik Pandya’s all-rounder credentials following India’s defeat in the Southampton Test before slamming India’s over-reliance on Kohli’s batting prowess.
A day later, Gavaskar has questioned Kohli’s captaincy credentials as India lost the Test series away from home.
“Everybody would be disappointed looking at the result because when Virat Kohli took over as captain, it seemed like the team would head into a new direction under him. The team looked hungry to win and seemed more hopeful of doing well under Kohli. Everyone thought that he will bring in a lot more josh, a lot more energy into the team. So quite naturally, there will be questions asked about his captaincy,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
“Everybody knew that the three toughest series for India was going to be in South Africa, England and the forthcoming Australia tour. Before this all that India played were more like practice tours in Sri Lanka and West Indies,” added Gavaskar.
The ex-Indian skipper also highlighted that India’s comeback to win a Test series against Australia last year after losing the first Test gave an impression that Kohli’s team won’t back down from any challenge. However, Gavaskar pointed out that the captain, in this case Kohli, who is amassing runs across formats, is only as good as a team. He also stated that had any other batsman, in addition to Kohli, had scored 400-500 runs in a Test series in South Africa and England, India would not have lost both the series.
While Virat Kohli now has 544 runs in the five-match Test series against England, none of the other Indian batsmen have managed to go past 300 runs. The scenario was no different in South Africa, earlier this year, where Kohli scored 286 runs across three Tests and was the highest run-getter (overall) in the series.
“Even the way in which India came back to beat Australia in the Test series last year after losing the first match, that gave us the impression that India wouldn’t back down to any challenge under captain Kohli. It seemed India would always play with their heads held high. But the captain is only as good as his team. As a batsman Kohli has lived up to the expectations and even more. He has done everything possible as a batsman,” said Gavaskar.
“If only the other batsmen could have played like him. If any other batsman could have scored over 400-500 runs then India wouldn’t have lost Test series in South Africa and in England. This is like a learning curve for Kohli at the moment. Fans are bound to be disappointed as the expectations were quite high with this team. Looking at how they performed before this at home, in West Indies and in Sri Lanka, everybody were hoping to see history being made on foreign soil,” continued Gavaskar.
While Kohli, the batsman, has broken quite a few records in the ongoing Test series – surpassing MS Dhoni to score most runs as an Indian captain. However, Gavaskar felt that Kohli, the captain has a long way to go.
“Yes, when Virat took over captaincy, everybody thought that it will be a completely different way because you had MSD (MS Dhoni) who was cool, calm and collected and here was somebody who was very passionate. Not that being calm, cool and collected means that you are not passionate about winning but here was a person who had a completely different approach and outlook to the game,” added Gavaskar.
However, Gavaskar refused to blame head coach Ravi Shastri and the coaching staff for India’s failure to win the Test series in England.
“Just like the captain, a coach is only as good as his team. If the team is not able to raise its level on the field, whatever you might tell them in the changing room or off the field in terms of motivation, won’t help. You can’t blame one person for it. Questions need to be asked of those persons, those individuals who are not able to raise the level of their game rather than a coach,” said Gavaskar.
The coaches are doing their best, they are working very hard. They can’t play for them from the change room. They can only hope that what they have told the players is something that they will implement. If the players don’t understand then I don’t think that the coaching staff is to be blamed,” concluded Gavaskar.
