Legendry Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar Gavaskar feels that 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.
The Little Master did not name any cricketer in particular. However, it was clear that he was talking about skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have been playing non-stop cricket since the home series against Australia.
“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,” said the former India captain.
“The World Test Championship (WTC) Final 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,” said Gavaskar.