The Indian cricket team has certainly improved its fitness standards over the years. In fact, the Yo-Yo test is often conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to guage the fitness of players in contention for selection. While on paper, the current crop of players might be the fittest of all in Indiain cricket history, legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar isn't able to understand how such 'fit' players face recurrent workload issues in the age of T20 cricket.
In a chat with the Indian Express, Gavaskar minced no words as he launched an attack on the senior stars in the Indian team. After India lost the World Test Championship final to Australia, skipper Rohit Sharma spoke about 'lack of preparation' being a reason. But, Gavaskar doesn't see the team rectifying those mistakes on the tour of West Indies, for which they had more than a month's break.
"What kind of preparation are we talking about? Now they have gone to the West Indies. You have the example of the World Test Championship before you. Are you playing any matches? So what is this talk about 20-25 days? ... When you talk about preparation, be genuine about it. Go 15 days before, play two warm-up matches. The main guys can rest, but the fringe players might be actually challenging those who are not doing well. He does not get an opportunity to show that he is good enough," said the former India captain.
Gavaskar feels the players don't want to go early to such tours as they are all but assured of their spots in the team. Also, going early is likely to trigger workload chatter in the cricketing fraternity which is something Gavaskar finds baffling.
"The truth is the main guys do not want to go early. Because they know that come what may, they will get selected. And when you go early they will talk about the workload. You call yourself the fittest team in the world or fitter than the early generations then how do you break down so soon? How do you have a workload issue when you play a 20-over game?", he said.
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