Australia vs India: Sunil Gavaskar takes a sly dig at Ravi Shastri on air

Of late, the cricketing world must have realised that India head coach Ravi Shastri has a knack of coming up with controversial comments. Just a few months ago, Shastri had coped severe criticism for his controversial ‘best travelling team in 15-20 years’ comment. Shastri had made the remark after India lost the series in England and not surprisingly, he had to face the wrath from the likes of Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly.

And it seems Shastri has still not learned his lessons. Recently, he made another controversial comment during the ongoing Test series in Australia. Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli faced significant criticism after Australia won the second Test in Perth by 146 runs to level the series. India’s decision to select Umesh Yadav as a fourth quick to replace injured spinner Ravichandran Ashwin backfired badly as the pitch clearly assisted the spinners.

Shastri then made things worse for him by slamming the critics as he took a dig at them. “When you’re millions of miles away it’s very easy to fire blanks,” Shastri had told reporters before the Boxing Day Test. “They’re too far away. We’re in the southern hemisphere.”

Fortunately, for him and the team management, India won the third Test in Melbourne to make sure that their head coach does not face any more heat at least for the time being.

Wake-up call in Perth

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, however, has taken a sly dig at Shastri for his earlier remark. On Sunday, Murali Kartik spoke about how the Perth defeat was a wake-up call for India while speaking for the official broadcasters.

In reply, Gavaskar said, “And how did that wake up call come? Because of the blanks being fired from thousands of miles away. The blanks made the noise that woke this team up!”

India, meanwhile, are well on top in the Sydney Test. After piling up 622 for 7, the tourists bowled out the hosts for 300 and asked them to follow on. Australia were 6 for no loss in their second innings before poor light forced stumps.

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