Follow UsVirat Kohli and KL Rahul, who are set to feature in the upcoming round of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, missed the last round due to respective injuries, but former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar isn’t quite sure about that. Kohli wasn’t available because of a neck sprain, while Rahul missed Karnataka’s last fixture due to an elbow injury.
Gavaskar said if that was the case, why didn’t Rahul and Kohli report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru? “Were they injured? Getting a medical certificate for an ‘injury’ is child’s play, and if they are injured, did they go to the NCA for treatment and recovery, as Nitish Reddy was sent the moment he had that side strain?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
“Isn’t that the practice for the BCCI-contracted players, that as soon as there’s an injury, they have to report to the NCA, and only after the BCCI experts there certify them as fit can they resume playing for India? For all we know, these players might have opted out of the earlier games for non-injury reasons. We shall soon find out.”
Gavaskar was also not pleased with how some of the Indian Test batters fared in the last round of the Ranji Trophy. Playing for Mumbai, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane failed to make any impact. Most of them got out playing aggressive shots, as Mumbai ended up losing to Jammu and Kashmir.
None of the aforementioned batters could cross the 15-run mark in the first innings. In the second essay, everyone apart from Dube got starts but couldn’t convert them into big scores. Dube failed to open his account in both innings. For Mumbai, Shardul Thakur (51,119) and Tanush Kotian (26,62) were the only two batters who put up some fight.
Following a series defeat in Australia after 10 years, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir had said he wants his players to play domestic cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also been very adamant about Indian players featuring in domestic tournaments whenever they are not on national duties or injured.
“The dismissal of Mumbai’s Test batters once again brought to the fore the perils of the all-out aggressive mode of batting that is nowadays thought of as being central to run-making. It can work on flat pitches, but on pitches where the ball is doing something, there has to be a technique good enough to keep out the good delivery,” added Gavaskar.
“More crucially, there has to be the temperament to accept that a bowler can bowl the occasional maiden over, and a few dot balls don’t warrant a big risky shot in response. The modern batter doesn’t seem to trust his defensive technique, consumed as he is by the thrill of hitting sixes. Nothing wrong in hitting sixes. In fact, it is exciting indeed, but in the red-ball format, the bowler has a little more help from the ball than in the white-ball version, and the six can be a risky proposition. It makes sense to single out the bowler who could be a danger and play him out, then look to score off the lesser bowlers.
“The BCCI and the coach’s insistence on the Indian players playing in the Ranji Trophy meant that most of the players who were on the disastrous tour of Australia turned up for their state teams in the Ranji Trophy. Whether their hearts were in it or they did that only to ensure they were not stripped of their BCCI contracts, like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were, after missing out on the Ranji Trophy games last year, is known only to them."