Gavaskar unhappy with India’s preparation for England Tests

Tags: India tour of England 2018, India, England

Published on: Aug 06, 2018

Sunil Gavaskar has criticised India’s preparation for the Edgbaston Test stating that they should have played more red ball practice games. India reduced their only practice game against Essex from a four-day affair to a three-day contest

Sunil Gavaskar has criticised India’s preparation for the Edgbaston Test stating that they should have played more red ball practice games. India reduced their only practice game against Essex from a four-day affair to a three-day contest

"We are talking about the Indian team being there and everybody is talking about the Indian team being there. But, they were playing with the white ball and the white ball doesn't swing at all. It hardly swings for half-a-dozen overs or so but the red-ball keeps swinging. We saw in this Test match that even in the 40th over, 50th over, the ball was moving around in the air as well as off the surface,” Gavaskar told India Today.

"So clearly you needed to have more practice. You can have as much as simulated practice with the throw downs etc but it is never the same as in a match. Because in throw downs, you can get out and still face the next ball, the bowler can bowl a no-ball but he still gets a wicket but in a match it is a completely different scenario. So, I thought that they should have played a little bit more," Gavaskar further opined to India Today.

On the tour of South Africa as well India abandoned the practice games, and ended up losing the Test series 2-1. "I can understand that you want to give them two days off and another two days off before the Test match starts. Maybe three and three -- six days off. I understand that but you have eight days in-between and in those eight days, there should have been two three-day matches with a gap of couple of days between the matches," Gavaskar went on to explain.

-By A Cricket Correspondent

Related News