Indian Legends Slams Selectors

The idea of Indian selectors resting two premier fast bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah for the Test against West Indies hasn’t gone too well with two former Indian captain in Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly.

Kumar and Bumrah form the core of India’s bowling attack in limited-overs cricket. Citing their heave workload in mind, they were rested after India’s victorious Asia Cup campaign. However, both Gavaskar and Ganguly were of the opinion that the duo should have played Test cricket and could have been subsequently rested for the limited-overs leg of the series.

In his column for The Times of India, Gavaskar had written, “India resting both Bhuvaneshwar and Bumrah is a surprise, for it shows that Test matches don’t seem to matter for the selectors. Were both the bowlers asked if they wanted a break? If a break has to be given, do that in the limited-overs internationals, not Test cricket, for if Test cricket is to survive it needs the best players available all the time.”

“I am a bit surprised with this decision as Bhuvi wasn’t there in England after the final ODI as he was injured and he also didn’t take part in the test series as well, so it’s unclear to me that why he needs more rest,” Ganguly, on the other hand, was quoted by XtraTime in a conversation.

Gavaskar also warned India to not take West Indies lightly for he believes that this team is stronger than the one which had toured India in 2013. “This West Indian team is a lot stronger than the one that toured India five years back for the farewell series for Sachin Tendulkar. The West Indian batting despite the absence of some T20 stars is a solid one and if the pitch at Rajkot is the usual flat one, then the Indian spinners may not find it easy to dismiss them as easily as they did in 2013,” he had written.