‘Kids Look Great Playing Against Kids’- Sunil Gavaskar Slams Young Indian Team For Series Loss vs WI
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar | Source: Twitter
The journey of Team India in the West Indies was nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. They won the two-match Test series by 1-0 and clinched the three-match ODI series 2-1. However, the five-match T20I series didn't go their way, as Hardik Pandya & Co. lost by 2-3, raising eyebrows about the young Indian team.
The team decided to roll the dice with fresh faces like Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Mukesh Kumar, and Sanju Samson. However, their firepower misfired as a unit, as the visitors found themselves in a tough spot, failing to rack up big totals on the board and putting the hosts under pressure.
Meanwhile, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar didn't hold back and tore into India's performance, giving an intriguing 'kids vs men' analogy to how the West Indies tour concluded for the Men in Blue.
'Kids look great playing against kids'- Gavaskar in his column for Sportstar
“A player could do well at the franchise level, but when it comes to playing for the country, it’s a different ball game of pressures and expectations. It is one step up, which can be too steep for even some of the best performers at the franchise level. How often have we seen this when the Under-19 performers just aren't able to take that one step up from a boys' tournament to a men's competition?”
The batting icon mentioned that what appears as a cakewalk at the under-19 stage becomes a real challenge when you step onto the national scene. He emphasised that the transition isn't a piece of cake by any means.
"Yes, the kids look great playing against kids, but when they come up against the men, they suddenly find that what looks like a piece of cake at the under-19 level is more like mud at the senior level. That's why so many who looked good at the boys' level have been found wanting at the senior level.”
“It's not just the temperament; even the skill set is way below the standard required at the franchise level. Then, having been bought for crores, some of these youngsters lose the fire in the belly and are happy to cruise along in later years and get their contracts extended, even if it is for a lesser amount."
While Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, and Sanju Samson struggled to leave a dent in the T20 series, the young hotshot Tilak Varma caught everyone's eye with his killer batting game. He stole the show, becoming India's top run-getter in the five-match T20I series, racking up a whopping 173 runs at an average of 57.67.
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