No one can really dispute the importance of playing domestic cricket, and rewarding the players performing in it. The loss in the Kolkata Test vs South Africa, perhaps highlighted the both for Team India. Neither do the Indian players play domestic cricket regularly, nor are the top Ranji performers get a chance in the Test side.
Reward Ranji Performers
And for a the same, ex-India opener Sunil Gavaskar took a dig at the players, as well as the selectors, in his column for Sportstar. “The defeat to South Africa will hopefully open the eyes of those who matter to look at the heavy scorers in domestic cricket, who are used to playing on pitches where the ball spins and keeps low. The international players are so busy playing overseas that they do not have practice playing on domestic pitches, and so are found wanting.”
The Indian team under Shubman Gill failed to chase down a modest 124 in home conditions, where none of the batters got to a fifty. In fact, as many as seven batters could not get scores in double digits. This is embarrassing to say the least, especially, given something similar had happed exactly a year back, when Indian batters failed to tackle spin by New Zealand, and lost a home series 0-3.
Need to Play Domestic Cricket
Gavaskar, a few day back had pointed out, that playing domestic cricket would keep them in good stead, prepare them to play spin better, a must in the Indian conditions. “A lot of our players do not play domestic cricket. If you play domestic cricket, you will get to play on such pitches, right? Because even at the domestic level, teams are trying to get the points so that they qualify for the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, which means that there will be pitches where the ball will grip and turn a little bit. But none of our players are playing that. None of our current players. How many of our current players actually deign to go down and play Ranji Trophy,” he told Sports Tak.
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