‘Why should anyone give importance’: Sunil Gavaskar slams Wisden, says Rohit Sharma will not lose sleep over exclusion

He also mentioned that Rohit Sharma will not be bothered by this as he is part of a group that only wants to win matches for the country and the biggest appreciation for them comes from teammates.

The 2019 ICC World Cup will be remembered for some of the finest moments that 50-over cricket has seen at a global stage. The round robin format ensured very few dull matches and individual brilliance of the top rated players shone through. India’s campaign was derailed by a top order collapse and some brilliance in the field in the semis against the Kiwis. Apart from that it was a near perfect tour. The star of the tournament for India was the opener, Rohit Sharma. While the world expected Virat Kohli to stamp his class on his first Cup as captain, it was his deputy Rohit, whose form and pedigree reached a crescendo during the showpiece event.

Rohit Sharma, Sunil Gavaskar (HT Collage)

He started with a mature century against South Africa and went on to score four more. He now holds the record for the most tons (5) in a single World Cup tournament and is tied with Sachin Tendulkar (6) for the most centuries ever in World Cups. Quite an achievement and it surely merited him a place among the best. But he didn’t make it to the widely respected list of Wisden’s top five performers of 2019. There has been shock and dismay at Rohit’s exclusion but one man is not worried at all. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar slammed the publication for its biased view of performances over the years and for giving precedence to performances on English soil.

“One may argue that Steve Smith was chosen as Cricketer of the Year in an earlier year. This once again confirms that the second best or lower performances get the nod. Remember also that a player could get thousands of runs and hundreds of wickets but if that has not happened in England then he still won’t be in the list of five since only performances in England are taken into account. Since that has been the case for so long, why should anyone give the list and the publication any importance since it rates only what happens in England,” Gavaskar wrote in his column Straight Drive in the daily Mid-Day.

He also mentioned that Rohit Sharma will not be bothered by this as he is part of a group that only wants to win matches for the country and the biggest appreciation for them comes from teammates.

“Firstly, let’s get one thing clear: Rohit is not going to lose sleep over his exclusion. All that he and the others in the Indian team are concerned about is winning games for the country and getting those delightful thumps on the back and hair ruffled by teammates in appreciation of their effort. That’s the sweetest and only compliment that any cricketer wants.

“So, make no mistake it won’t matter to Rohit. He knows he gave his everything to the Indian team in their pursuit of the World Cup,” Gavskar wrote