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Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav were ruled out of the two-match Test series against the West Indies after India's crushing defeat to Australia in the WTC final, while pacer Mohammed Shami was rested. However, India's great cricketer Sunil Gavaskar is not happy with this decision of the selection committee. Gavaskar has said that the West Indies tour was a good opportunity for the selectors to look at young cricketers and give breaks to senior cricketers keeping in mind the next cycle of the WTC.
Gavaskar told India Today, "It was a great opportunity to see and test the front line of cricketers. Because if there was ever a tour where you could do some kind of experiments, it was the West Indies. The West Indies are not the force they used to be." So, it was a great opportunity to try out young players."
Gavaskar did not name any cricketer in particular but it was clear that he was talking about skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have been playing consistent cricket since the home series against Australia.
Both Rohit and Kohli will be important players for India in the ODI World Cup to be held in October-November this year. Gavaskar further added, "The WTC is over, we missed out there but the next big thing is the ODI World Cup. I would prefer the big players to be given a complete break from Test cricket. Just look at the 50-over format and maybe T20 too because it's the shorter version. I just wanted him to focus on white-ball cricket. He's been playing consistent cricket since October-November last year. Apart from the injury break, he hasn't had a really long break Got it. So give him a complete break from red-ball cricket. It is certain who will play the 50-over World Cup. You have given Shami a break, maybe others too."
The former opener said, "Give them leave till the end of July. Now obviously this team is going for warm-up matches on July 1 and 2. So they will hardly get 20 days off. They will get 40 days." Why not given? So that they come back completely fresh for the white-ball formats. This tour of the West Indies is not going to do any good for the senior players."
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