The India vs England Test series is done with a fresh-faced Rohit Sharma-led side winning the contest 4-1. Despite losing the first Test and missing the services of top players like Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami, the Indian cricket team came back strong, boosted by some superlative display from a bunch of debutants. The victory saw India consolidate their position at the the top of the World Test Championship points table, while England are reeling among the bottom teams.
After the win, former Indian cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar has launched a scathing attack on the English side.
“What a walloping, what great fun to watch a young India team demolish an England team that had arrived in India with the usual ‘we are doing you a favour’ attitude that brings a smirk on the faces of those Indian officials who go to receive them at various airports,” Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
“The Aussies have been invariably better, looking to adapt themselves to the culture and not look down their noses at us natives. It also helps that the Aussies recognise a golden goose when they see one, and the IPL is certainly a humongous golden goose.”
Sunil Gavaskar went on to explain why Australian players are more likeable than England, who have “supercilious attitude”.
“Not only do Aussie players, some so memorably described by Kevin Pietersen as second or third-grade cricketers, go for astronomical amounts, but there are also Aussie coaches, physios, trainers, and anybody who is their golf and beer buddy in the IPL coaching staff, making more money than they do at home,” he wrote further.
“Not to mention the commentators, where sometimes it feels more like the Australian Premier League than the Indian Premier League. The Aussies are likeable and don’t have the supercilious attitude that the Poms generally have. That perhaps explains why the acrimony that was seen between the Indian and Australian teams has vanished almost entirely, even though the intensity of the contests between the countries hasn’t reduced one bit.”
Recently Sunil Gavaskar was not satisfied with an attempt by Sarfaraz Khan in the fifth Test that saw him lose his wicket.
“The ball was pitched up; it wasn’t short enough for that shot. Goes for it and pays the price. I mean you are playing the first ball after tea. Give yourself a little sighter. Don Bradman said to me ‘Every ball that I face, even if I am on 200, I think I am on 0.’ And here is [Sarfaraz] is… playing such a shot first ball of the session,” Gavaskar said during commentary in JioCinema.
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