“Looked like net bowlers” - Sunil Gavaskar lashes out at West Indies for innings defeat in 1st Test

Former Indian captain and commentator, Sunil Gavaskar, has lashed out at the West Indies team for their innings defeat to India in the first Test of the two-match series at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Writing his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar stated that apart from Jayden Seales, other pacers were simply trundlers, who looked more like net bowlers rather than international ones. He was also surprised at the West Indies bowlers not bowling frequent bouncers at the Indian batters.

“Apart from Jayden Seales, the other two were simply trundlers, who looked more like net bowlers than international ones. No disrespect intended to them, but to see the first bouncer being bowled after half a dozen overs had been bowled made one ask, ‘Is this really the West Indies pace attack?’ Yes, bowling bouncers is a big effort, and on a hot day, it can take a lot out of a bowler, but it is a surprise weapon to stop the batter from moving on to the front foot regularly,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

Gavaskar also reckoned that it was only Alick Athanaze and Justin Greaves who looked a bit decent with the bat. While Greaves was the team’s top scorer in the first innings with 32 runs, Athanaze top-scored in the second innings with 38 runs. 

“For a team that once boasted of the likes of the Three Ws, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, to name just a few, there is simply nobody in this current team who looks like getting a million country miles close to them. Of course, I haven’t forgotten the incomparable Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and the ‘Prince of Trinidad’, Brian Lara. They are geniuses born once in a century and were way above normal human beings,” he wrote.

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