Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the current team management, alleging discrimination in Team India. Gavaskar cited the examples of T Natarajan and senior spinner R Ashwin as he spoke about the double standards in the Indian team when it comes to the treatment of players.
Gavaskar claimed Ashwin has suffered for far too long for speaking his mind at the team meetings. The former captain pointed out how the senior spinner keeps getting dropped from the team after one average performance while other established batsmen remain unchallenged despite their poor show.
Ashwin has been a Test specialist for India for quite a while now and has been sidelined from white-ball cricket completely. He last played a white-ball game for India in 2017 and has been playing as a Test specialist despite his good show in IPL and the domestic circuit.
“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,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
“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,” he added.
Ashwin is India’s fourth-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 370 wickets in 70 matches. In ODIs, he has 150 wickets in 111 matches while in T20Is, he has picked 52 wickets in 46 games.
