Indian skipper Virat Kohli left Australia on Tuesday to return to India and be with his wife Anushka Sharma as she is due to give birth to their first child in January.
Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has pointed to a rift within the Indian team, stating that the treatment of bowlers like R Ashwin and T Natarajan is biased as there are “different rules for different players”. His comment came on the sidelines of Team India skipper Virat Kohli, who left the Australian coasts to be with his wife Anushka Sharma during the delivery of their first child.
Reaching out on permission Kohli had given, Gavaskar pointed out that T Natarajan, who became a father during the UAE Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs, has not yet seen his daughter. Gavaskar also said that spinner R Ashwin suffered from his openness on the Indian team.
“For too long, Ashwin has not suffered from his bowling ability, which only the Churlish will doubt, but from his openness and opinion at meetings where most of the others just nod, even if they disagree,” wrote Gavaskar in his column for Sports Star.
“Any other country would welcome a bowler who has more than 350 test wickets, not to mention four test match centuries. If Ashwin doesn’t take a lot of wickets in one game, he invariably falls out of the next. That happens to established batsmen, however not. Even if they fail in a game, they get another chance and another and another, but for Ashwin the rules seem different, “he added.
Gavaskar added that Natarajan was forced to stay behind only as a net bowler, despite the fact that the limited overs series he was part of ended almost a fortnight ago.
“Another player who will be amazed at the rules but of course can’t make any noise since he’s a newbie. It’s T Natarajan. The left-wing York specialist who made an impressive debut in the T20 and Hardik had Pandya who gallantly offered to share the T20 Series Prize Man had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were taking place, brought straight to Australia from the United Arab Emirates and then watched his brilliant performances I asked to stay for the test series, not as part of the team, but as a net bowler. Imagine that, “wrote Gavaskar.
“A match winner, albeit in a different format, is asked to be a net bowler. So he won’t return home until the end of the series in the third week of January and then see his daughter for the first time. And there is the captain.” goes back to the first test for the birth of his first child. That’s Indian cricket. Different rules for different people. If you don’t believe me, ask Ravi Ashwin and T Natarajan, “he continued.
Kohli left Australia for India after handing the reins of the country’s testing team over to Ajinkya Rahane as Anushka Sharma is due to give birth to her first child in January. The team lost to Australia in the first friendly, which took place in Adelaide after a dismal performance in the second innings. India was left out for 36 runs in the second innings of the first Test Match. The test matches between India and Australia are due to end in the third week of January.