'No one has come to me. Sachin, Dravid, Laxman used to approach regularly': Gavaskar's sharp 'ego' dig at India batters

Sunil Gavaskar strongly feels that despite the lags in technique when batting overseas, the Indian team management has been limited to rectify those errors.

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar is surprised that none of the batters from the current Indian team has approached him for guidance lately. Gavaskar, who has always been open and extremely approachable for assistance, has spotted technical glitches in the top order but finds is strange that neither the seniors nor youngsters have reached out to him for any help of any form whatsoever. Citing an example of the great Virender Sehwag, Gavaskar strongly feels that despite the lags in technique when batting overseas, the team management has been limited to rectify those errors.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is surprised that no one from the current Indian team has approached him for assistance. (Getty)

"If the batters are making the same mistakes over and over again, you need to ask what has happened with your technique. How have you tried to improve the batter? Have you tried to tell him, maybe take a different guard. Don't take a leg-stump guard, take a middle and off stump guard," Gavaskar told The Indian Express.

"I remember once calling Virender Sehwag out of the blue. He had not been scoring too many runs. I told him, 'Viru, just try the off-stump guard'. So he asked, 'Why, Sunny bhai?' So I told him, 'Look, you aren't known for great footwork. What is happening is, sometimes when you are getting out, you are reaching out for the delivery and it makes things difficult for you. So, maybe if you take the off-stump guard, you straight away know that the ball is outside the off-stump'. That is where the coach can come in with his inputs."

Gavaskar's comments come in the wake of India's defeat to Australia in the World Test Championship final, where barring a couple of notable performances, the batting crumbled under pressure. India were bowled out for 296 in the first innings and 234 in the second – the last seven wickets going down for 55 runs in another batting collapse. Such implosions have formed a repetitive pattern in India's performances, one that has hurt them dearly and been detrimental to their success overseas.

'I don't have any ago about this': Gavaskar open to lending assistance

It's no rocket science that this abject batting is related to lack of application and certain shortcomings in techniques, which is Indian batter's reluctance in going up to Gavaskar for advice is all the more baffling. The last time an Indian batter asked for Gavaskar's aid was in November 2021, when Mayank Agarwal picked the Little Master's brains for suggestions. However, barring him, ever since, it's been awfully quiet. Gavaskar reiterated that he has no issues coming to the support of the batters, but has restricted himself in doing so to avoid confusion.

"No, no one has come. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman regularly came to me. And they would approach me with a specific problem and you could tell them something which you had observed. I don't have an ego about this, I could go and talk to them but since there are two coaches — Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathore – so sometimes you hold back since you don’t want to confuse them with too much information," added the former India captain.