Gavaskar trashes India's XI on live TV, lambasts Gambhir, Bumrah for dropping Ashwin, Jadeja and picking Nitish Reddy

 

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar wasted no time in slamming Gautam Gambhir and the management for dropping Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the first Test against Australia at the Optus Stadium, Perth. The visitors have handed out debuts to all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and pacer Nitish Rana for the first Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Washington Sundar is playing as the lone spinner in the lineup, and Gavaskar did not take kindly to experienced pros Ashwin and Jadeja being benched.

While doing commentary on Day 1 of the first Test, Gavaskar said that Ashwin and Jadeja are not bowlers who can play in just the Indian conditions. He also lambasted the management for picking Nitish Kumar Reddy, who has played just 23 first-class matches.

"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 selection in hope'

Sunil Gavaskar also said that it feels that the selection of Nitish Kumar Reddy is more "in hope". Even former Australia batter Matthew Hayden seemed in agreement with what the former India captain had to say.

"He has not played many first-class games and so clearly, I think, this selection of Nitish is more in hope, nothing less. Like all Indian cricket followers, I hope it comes off," said Gavaskar.

Speaking of the first Test between India and Australia, it was Jasprit Bumrah who won the toss and opted to bat first. KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal are playing in place of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.

India lost the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal quite cheaply in the first session, and both the batters failed to get off the mark.

Mitchell Starc removed Jaiswal in the third over of the Test while Padikkal fell to Josh Hazlewood. His 23-ball stay at the crease, did not yield any runs.