Sunil Gavaskar questions MS Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan’s absence from domestic cricket

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been brought to question by none other than the legendary Sunil Gavaskar who hit out at the board for allowing Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan to skip domestic cricket before the World Cup next year.

Dhawan was shown the door in Test cricket following a string of poor performances in England and has been spending time with his family in Melbourne after the T20I series.
Dhoni, on the other hand, hasn’t played cricket since India’s ODI series against the Windies at home. He was dropped for the T20Is against West Indies and Australia.

“We shouldn’t ask Dhawan and Dhoni ‘Why you are not playing domestic cricket?’. We should, in fact, ask the BCCI and selectors why are they allowing players to skip domestic cricket when they are not on national duty,” said Gavaskar, as quoted by India Today.

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“If the Indian team has to do well, players have to be in prime form and for that they have to play cricket,” he further added.

The former Indian skipper also expressed his wishes in seeing Dhoni compete in the Ranji Trophy. Dhoni has been at the receiving end of a barrage of criticism in recent times because of his poor form with the bat, far from the slambang batsman he used to be in the past.

“He (Dhoni) didn’t play the T20Is against Australia, before that he didn’t play the West Indies Tests, and then he is not playing the Test series against Australia. “So, he last played in October (November 1) and will next play in January, which is a huge gap. But if he doesn’t do well on tours of Australia and New Zealand, then there will be more questions asked on his place in the World Cup.

“As you grow older and if there is a gap in your cricket, your reflexes will slow down. If you play any form of cricket at the domestic level, you get an opportunity to play long innings, which serves as a good practice for you,” pointed out the former iconic cricketer.

(Image credit-Hindustan Times)