Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav were the notable casualties after India's loss in the WTC final to Australia. The duo were dropped for the two-match Test series against West Indies while pacer Mohammed Shami was given a breather. Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, however, was not pleased with the approach of the selection committee. Gavaskar said the West Indies tour was the ideal opportunity for the selectors to look at young cricketers and give a break to the senior cricketers keeping the next cycle of the WTC in mind.
"There was a very good chance to try and look at the next rung of cricketers. Because if there was any tour where you could have made some sort of experiments then it was the West Indies. They are not the same force anymore. Therefore, blooding in the younger players would have been the right way," Gavaskar told Sports Today.
The former India captain did not name any cricketer in particular but it was clear that he was talking about captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have been playing non-stop cricket since the home series against Australia.
Both Rohit and Kohli are going to be key factors for India in the ODI World Cup slated to place in October-November this year.
"The WTC is gone, we missed out there but the next big thing is the ODI World Cup. I would have preferred the big boys to be given a complete break from Test cricket. Look at only the 50-over format and maybe T20s too as it is the abbreviated version. I would have only wanted them to focus on white-ball cricket. They have been playing non-stop cricket since October-November last year. And apart from injury breaks, they have not really got long breaks. So give them a complete break from red-ball cricket. The certainties who would be playing the 50-over World Cup. You have given Shami a break so maybe the others too," Gavaskar said.
'West Indies tour will tell us nothing new about senior players': Gavaskar
{{/usCountry}}"The WTC is gone, we missed out there but the next big thing is the ODI World Cup. I would have preferred the big boys to be given a complete break from Test cricket. Look at only the 50-over format and maybe T20s too as it is the abbreviated version. I would have only wanted them to focus on white-ball cricket. They have been playing non-stop cricket since October-November last year. And apart from injury breaks, they have not really got long breaks. So give them a complete break from red-ball cricket. The certainties who would be playing the 50-over World Cup. You have given Shami a break so maybe the others too," Gavaskar said.
'West Indies tour will tell us nothing new about senior players': Gavaskar
{{/usCountry}}Gavaskar also hinted the Indian team's plan of going to the West Indies more than a week before the first Test to play warm-up games also doesn't make much sense as it will only reduce the break time for senior players who are going to play the World Cup later this year.
"Give them a break till the end of July. Now apparently, this team is going to go for warm-up matches and all on the 1st and 2nd of July. So they will have a barely 20-day break. Why not give them 40 days? So that they come back for the white-ball formats completely fresh.
"This tour of the West Indies is not going to tell us anything new about the established players. Whether they will be there two years down the line for the WTC final, I don't know. So a wonderful opportunity was missed," Gavaskar added.
India are slated to play two Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is in the Caribbean islands.