Sunil Gavaskar not impressed with India’s prep plan for third Test; says they’re in love with London

Known to articulate his forthright views, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels Indian cricketers needed to be smarter in preparing for the third Test at Trent Bridge. Team India was hammered by England at Lord’s by an innings and 159 runs in the second Test and it came after the disappointing 31-run defeat at Edgbaston. They will need to survive the third Test undefeated if there is still some aspiration left to make a match of it in this series.

Gavaskar, who was critical of India’s preparations for the Test series and questioned the absence of more warm-up matches ahead of the schedule, is of the opinion that the Indian players needed to leave London and reach Nottingham as early as possible to start preparing for the third Test which will begin on August 18.

Virat Kohli’s side has been touring England for over a month and a half now. They played the T20I and ODI series but only one three-day game before the Test series kicked off. And after facing a humiliation at Lord’s where the game ended a day early, the team remained in London instead of heading to Nottingham for the third Test. India were set to travel to Nottingham on Wednesday, August 15, and Gavaskar isn’t convinced.

They are in love with London

“I can understand they have taken the day off today… they are still licking the wounds of the defeat at Lord’s but they should have been planning to leave for Nottingham after today which would have been the last day of the Lord’s Test and practice from tomorrow,” the former cricketer Gavaskar told India Today.

“But clearly as we have seen from the start of the ODI series, they are in love with London. You cannot get practice facilities in London as easily as you would in Nottingham – I hope they practice from Tuesday. And there should be no optional practice. Everybody needs to get down to practice There’s no such thing as optional practice when you are 0-2 down,” Gavaskar said.

“You don’t just need net practice but practice matches also. One should strive for practice games between third and fourth Test as well when there is space. There may possibly be some new players coming in after third Test and they need some practice time as well. These things have to be thought about. I have been saying this since January when the South Africa tour was lost. But perhaps we are old fashioned, who don’t understand modern day cricket,” he stated.

For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow CricTracker.