Sunil Gavaskar Voices Disappointment Over India's Test Team Selection For West Indies Tour, Labels It A 'Missed Opportunity'

Sunil Gavaskar reckons that those guaranteed to feature in the ODI World Cup 2023 should have focused only on the white-ball leg of the tour.

Former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar during day two of the ICC World Test Championship Final between Australia and India at The Oval on June 08, 2023 in London, England.

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The Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India's squad for the two-match Test series against West Indies on Friday (June 23). Among the regular members of the Test side who were missing from this list were Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. While Jaydev Unadkat managed to retain his place in the Indian test set-up, Mukesh Kumar earned a maiden India call-up. Navdeep Saini too received a call-up for the longest format of the game. The rest of the team has pretty much the same look as the one that was selected for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final. 

However, India's cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar reckons that the selectors have missed a trick here by giving only a handful of youngsters a chance in the Test format. He reckons that players who are guaranteed to play the ODI World Cup later this year should have ideally played from the white-ball series onwards, leaving more places up for grabs for youngsters in red-ball cricket.

"The World Test Championship is gone. We missed out over there. Now the next big thing really is the (ODI) World Cup in October and therefore I would have wanted for the big boys to be given a complete break from Test cricket. Now look only at the white-ball cricket, not red-ball cricket. Give them a complete break who are certain to play World Cup. They have been playing non-stop cricket for 3-4 months. They barely had a break," said Gavaskar on Sports Today.

"Had they given break to every senior player and played a few more younger players, that would have done Indian cricket a world of good. But that sadly hasn't happened. I think a wonderful opportunity was missed," he added.

Gavaskar had also said that the selectors made Cheteshwar Pujara a scapegoat as despite a collective failure in the WTC final it was only he who was shown the exit door.