Sunil Gavaskar loses cool, calls West Indies pacers ‘net bowlers’

Former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the West Indies bowling attack following their innings and 140-run defeat to India in Ahmedabad.The West Indies cricket team struggled in their first innings, scoring only 162 runs, with Indian fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah leading the bowling attack.India demonstrated their dominance by declaring at 448/5, before dismissing West Indies for 146 runs in their second innings. The match concluded in just two and a half days. “In Ahmedabad, apart from Jayden Seales, the other two were simply trundlers, who looked more like net bowlers than international ones,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar. “No disrespect intended to them, but to see the first bouncer being bowled after half a dozen overs had been bowled made one ask, ‘Is this really the West Indies pace attack?’ Yes, bowling bouncers is a big effort, and on a hot day, it can take a lot out of a bowler, but it is a surprise weapon to stop the batter from moving on to the front foot regularly.”The second Test match between India and West Indies is scheduled to take place in New Delhi from October 10-14.Gavaskar expressed concern about the decline in West Indies batting quality, noting that cricket’s uneven wealth distribution may be a contributing factor.“For a team that once boasted of the likes of the Three Ws, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, to name just a few, there is simply nobody in this current team who looks like getting a million country miles close to them,” he added. “Of course, I haven’t forgotten the incomparable Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and the ‘Prince of Trinidad’, Brian Lara. They are geniuses born once in a century and were way above normal human beings.”