Gavaskar attacks Kohli, alleges ‘different rules for different players’ in Team India

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has lambasted the Indian team management for what he believes are ‘different rules for different players’ in the team set up, as well as the lack of humility in the leadership group to accept ‘forthrightness’ of players who disagree with their viewpoints. 

Gavaskar has hit out at captain Virat Kohli’s decision to return home mid-series for the birth of his first child while others, such as pacer T Natarajan, did not get the chance to see his newborn due to the ongoing tour. Gavaskar put forward this criticism in his column for Sportstar magazine.

“Another player who will wonder about the rules but, of course, can’t make any noise about it as he is a newcomer. It is T Natarajan. The left-arm yorker specialist who made an impressive debut in the T20 and had Hardik Pandya gallantly offering to share the Man of the T20 Series prize with him, had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were going on,” Gavaskar wrote.

Gavaskar also pointed out the unfairness handed out to Natarajan as he was asked to stay in Australia even after the completion of the white-ball leg of the tour, but not as part of the squad, but as a net bowler whose job is to help batsmen prepare for the Test series. Gavaskar strongly objected to the different set of standards being followed while making decisions about ‘paternity leaves’ of players.

“...he was asked to stay on for the (Australia) Test series but not as a part of the team but as a net bowler. Imagine that! A match-winner, albeit in another format, being asked to be a net bowler. He will thus return home only after the series ends in the third week of January and get to see his daughter for the first time then. And there is the captain (Virat Kohli) going back after the first Test for the birth of his first child,” The former India captain noted.

On the issue of lack of heart in the leadership group, Gavaskar referred to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who, Gavaskar believes, has been treated unfairly, not for his bowling on overseas tours, but for his ‘forthrightness.’ He said that the team management always keeps a sword hanging on Ashwin and in case of an average outing on the field, he is made to sit out, while other players of the team, such as batsmen, don’t have to go face such rigorous standards of success and failure.

“For far too long, Ashwin has suffered not for his bowling ability of which only the churlish will have doubts, but for his forthrightness and speaking his mind at meetings where most others just nod even if they don’t agree. If Ashwin doesn’t take heaps of wickets in one game, he is invariably sidelined for the next one. That does not happen to established batsmen though,” Gavaskar reckoned.

There has been a history between Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli and his actress wife Anushka Sharma. The latter had responded to Gavaskar when the former batting maestro had taken her name while discussing the batting form of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli in IPL 2020. In what was intended as a harmless light-hearted comment about a video showing Kohli playing cricket with his wife, Gavaskar used words which Anushka interpreted as a vulgar double entendre. The Indian legend clarified that his words were not intended as anything of the kind. 

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