Sunil Gavaskar slams Gambhir- (Source:@Johns/X.com)
The first Test match between India and Australia has kickstarted at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the decision backfired as India have already lost three wickets, including big fish Virat Kohli.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal departed for ducks, while Virat scored 5 (12). Meanwhile, the Jasprit Bumrah-led side have handed a debut to Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy. Meanwhile, Test veterans R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been left out of the playing XI.
The fans were angered to see neither of the two spinners featuring in the Perth Test as India went ahead with Washington Sundar as the lone spinner.
Gavaskar Questions Reddy's Place In Test Cricket
Meanwhile, former India opener turned analyst Sunil Gavaskar too slammed the Indian management for leaving Ashwin and Jadeja out while being live in the commentary box and questioned Nitish Reddy's Readiness in Test cricket.
"Really surprised with Ashwin and Jadeja not playing, they have got 900 wickets between them in Test matches. They are not bowlers who can just play in Indian or sub-continent conditions. They are very clever bowlers, they are very experienced bowlers. Even if they might not get you wickets, they will be able to slow the scoring down because of the cleverness of how they bowl," said Gavaskar.
"I would have thought that on these Australian wickets, there are big boundaries, so I thought you would have gone with both of them. But this is a new management, new thinking. They have gone with Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is a promising cricketer, make no mistake about that. But is he ready for Test cricket?" he added.
Nitish Reddy made his India debut in the T20I series against Bangladesh, where he shone in his second match and scored a fifty-plus knock. Further, he impressed Gambhir and was presented with India cap by Virat Kohli ahead of the start of the first Test.