Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar slammed the Bangladesh team, on the verge of suffering a clean sweep against India, for a lack of application on what he thought was a good batting wicket at Eden Gardens.
At the pitch report ahead of day three, Gavaskar said it did not matter how the pitch behaved as an ‘ordinary team’, with batsmen possessing ‘ordinary technique’ was going to lose the match sooner rather than later against a rampant Indian side. The Indian legend went as far to say that there was no real need to do the pitch report with the defeat imminent.
“I feel sorry for the Bangladesh supporters because they are one of the most passionate supporters in the game,” Gavaskar told Star Sports after the pitch report. “They really, really love their team and their cricketers and their cricketers have not done anything to deserve that in these two matches.”
“Because it’s not that they have not been good enough. It is the application. I can keep saying this. There has got to be an application, a determination… there has got to be a feeling within the team. You see that with the Indian team when they are on,” the opener who scored 34 Test centuries added.
A sparkling century by Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma’s four wickets put India on the cusp of a big win over Bangladesh on just the second day of their maiden day-night Test on Saturday.
Bangladesh were 152/6 at stumps in their second innings, still needing 89 runs to avoid an innings defeat in the Kolkata pink ball Test. Until two veterans Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah put up a partnership for the fifth wicket, it seemed the match was going to end in two days. But, when India were batting earlier, the duo seemed to be disinterested on the field with Mahmudullah’s body language often being questioned by analysts on air.
“You see, you have two senior players in the Bangladesh team and they have done nothing to help the new captain. Go to him, I’ not saying go directly to the bowler, but go to him and say do this, do that or the odd tip. We haven’t seen that commitment at all. And therefore, it is a little bit disappointing,” Gavaskar said.