By Karan Agrawal 
Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his frustration over the performance of Indian test players in Mumbai’s shocking loss against Jammu & Kashmir in the recently concluded penultimate round of group-stage matches.
The Performance
The former Indian opener questioned the shot selection of the batters on a wicket that was assisting the bowlers. “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,” he wrote in Sportstar.
Expert’s Corner
“There are more chances of a dismissal while looking to play in a manner that one is not used to, as was seen in the recent Sydney Test [between India and Australia] when rushes of blood caused some silly-looking dismissals. A bit of common sense and patience, rather than a fatalistic approach, could have gotten another 50 runs, and that could well have altered the result of the match and the series,” he added.
The Concern
Gavaskar also raised concerns regarding the intent of players like Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal as he felt that the duo played against Jammu & Kashmir to ensure that they were not excluded from the central contract. In the words of Gavaskar “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.
The Sacrifice
He was of the opinion that due to the availability of players like Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal Ayush Mhatre who has been in good form had to sit out. Having said that Gavaskar was also hopeful that the batter might have gained useful experience while spending time with the duo “Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s participation meant that Ayush Mhatre, who had got a couple of hundreds and some fifties, had to be left out of the Mumbai side. Hopefully, the youngster would have spent some time with both these players and picked their brains about adding to his batting ability,” he said.
The Opportunity
With the majority of the test regulars having featured in the previous round of Ranji Trophy matches players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Mohammed Siraj are expected to make an appearance in the last round of matches starting from January 30 for their respective teams following which Gavaskar said that it would be interesting to see whether the trio plays in the last round. “It would be interesting to see if KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, and Virat Kohli, who didn’t play in last week’s round of Ranji Trophy matches, will play the next round,” he added.