‘It would have been perfect timing’ – Sunil Gavaskar highlights importance of first class cricket to prepare for Tests

Sunil Gavaskar speaking. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Team India put forth an improved performance in the second Test of the ongoing series against England. After losing the first Test, the hosts pulled off a brilliant comeback in the second Test to level the series. However, according to former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar, there were some problems that still persisted.

At one point of the game, during the second innings of the second Test, the Indian team looked set to post a target of 450 runs or more against England. However, a batting collapse saw the hosts only manage to post a target of 399 runs. In the same vein, former India legend Sunil Gavaskar opined that youngsters should look to spend more time playing first-class cricket as there are many players with little experience in domestic cricket.

“What the batters’ failure to get big runs also shows how important it is before a Test match series for both batters and bowlers to play some first-class games and get themselves in the right frame of mind for the longer format of the game. The Ranji Trophy had started and it would have been perfect timing for the batters to get into the groove for the Test series by playing a couple of games,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Mid-Day.

Lodha panel made it mandatory to give first-class status to states who were not part of Ranji Trophy: Gavaskar

Furthermore, Sunil Gavaskar also talked about how the IPL has replaced the Ranji Trophy as the benchmark for player performances and their ticket into the Indian team. The former batter opined that the state associations should make changes to help youngsters get equal opportunities.

“Some of the performances in the Ranji Trophy, especially after the Lodha panel reforms made it mandatory to give first-class status to some states who were not part of the Ranji Trophy circuit, have been mind-boggling. While the thinking behind it may have been to spread the game to all parts of the country, what it did not take into consideration was that all those states were simply not ready to play at that level,” Gavaskar signed off.