Former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has lashed out at some members of the Indian T20 World Cup squad after they decided to skip the optional training session on Friday ahead of the high-stakes clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday.
He primarily disagreed with the concept of an optional training session, but his objection was furthered after the team got a day’s rest after their warm-up game against New Zealand was abandoned due to bad weather.
Such being the case, the stalwart questioned the players who decided to skip the optional training session, especially ahead of such an important tournament. Gavaskar was of the opinion that considering their struggles in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup, together with not the best run of form coming into the World Cup, all the players should have attended the training session regardless of whether it was optional or not.
Some prominent faces of the Indian side were absent in Friday’s training session, led by captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. Veteran Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, and Arshdeep Singh were present at the practice grounds.
All the other members of the side decided to take the day off. On the other hand, all of Pakistan’s players were seen in training, videos of which were posted online on various social media platforms.
“I don’t know what it tells you but it’s something that I don’t agree with. I don’t agree with it for the simple reason that, at the start of the tournament, when you had your match (warm-up match) washed out, when you have come to Melbourne and had a day off, and then the next day, you opt not to practice?”
Gavaskar said.
“Giving an option is something I believe only the captain and the coach should be doing. Say, if you scored a hundred in the previous game and you have a small niggle, the captain and the coach can give you the option of not practicing and say ‘if you don’t want to come to practice, it’s fine’.
Similarly with a bowler, who has bowled maybe 20-30 overs and feeling a sore shoulder or something, then the captain and the coach can give that bowler the option of not coming for training.”
the former Indian skipper concluded.
