India will get better with time: Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar (L) with Indian captain MS Dhoni (R)

Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar has urged the fans to be patient with the national cricket team, citing that they are young and will get better with time, and shot down on the criticism directed at Indian players’ inability to play quality pace bowling, which has resulted in their last couple of losses against England in Tests, saying that there is “an element of jealousy” that has resulted in such sour comments.

Gavaskar said, “The team is in transition as some of the best players in the world have retired a few years back. It is difficult for these youngsters to fill into their big shoes. We need to be a little bit patient with them. I agree that India has been struggling in Test format for some time. But look, with those some of the best players in the world, India still lost 0-4 to England and then with identical margin to Australia in 2011. So, I will not just point a finger on these current players.”

Struggle against Moeen Ali

On why the Indian batsman are finding it difficult to negotiate off-spinner Moeen Ali, the 65-year-old said: “Apart from the one delivery which dismissed Virat Kohli, I would not say that Moeen had bowled some extraordinary deliveries or which turned a lot. It was just that the Indians wanted to score runs off him as they were not getting boundaries from the other end from the likes of James Anderson.

“They thought they could score some easy runs from Moeen. If you are not getting runs from one end, you naturally try to get runs from the other. It happens in cricket and players may get out in doing that. That had happened to the Indians.”

Elements of jealousy

On the criticism directed at Indian cricket players, he said: “India has now become a cricket team to be picked on. There is a certain element of jealousy here. India now controls the game financially and so people want to bring down the Indian team.”

Questioning why the English players were sparred from ridicule after they were bounced out during the Ashes and in the ongoing series against India, Gavaskar said: “When India won the second Test at the Lord's, England players were struggling to play short-pitched deliveries. England players were hit on the helmet. The same happened when Mitchell Johnson of Australia bowled in the Ashes. But nobody wrote that England players cannot play short-pitched deliveries.”

"So can one conclude that Indians struggled to play spin on the basis of Moeen's performance? I will criticise the Indian players when needed but I will not also criticise them unnecessarily. They belong to my cricketing fraternity," added Gavaskar.