Srinagar: Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has slammed Team India for its ‘Listless’ approach as Dean Elgar and Marco Jansen punished India bowlers on Day 3 of the Centurion Test.
Gavaskar said India’s body language and performance in the first hour of play on Thursday at the Supersport Park in Centurion was “listless” and they needed to wake up from the slumber as soon as possible.
“India have to wake up. they have been listless. some of the efforts we’ve seen, some of the body language is very very listless at the moment. Yes, Bumrah bowled a good spell but that was not backed up,” Gavaskar said on commentary.
Dean Elgar missed out on a well-deserved maiden double hundred as helped hosts Sputh Africa post a total of 408 runs in first innings, gaining huge lead over India. In reply India got all out for 131 run total in second inning with Virat Kohli top scoring for the side. South Africa registered massive an innings and 32 runs win.
Gavaskar said the players getting tired after the tea break on a hot and sunny day is understandable but there cannot be an explanation for India’s timid approach in the first session of a new day.
“I can understand this attitude an hour after tea on a hot day but not on the first hour of the day, definitely not,” he said.
“They perhaps hoped to get an early wicket but once they didn’t get that, they went into a shell. There was not much clapping. There was nothing to encourage the bowlers. The boundaries were flowing and that is where you could see the body language was really down. There was no energy. This was supposed to be a crucial morning session. They really should have shown more energy,” Gavaskar said in the innings break show on Star Sports.