Srinagar: Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has sent a huge warning to Team India management ahead of the World Cup 2023.
India on Sunday lifted its 8th Asia Cup title defeating Sri Lanka by 10 wickets. However, there are injury concerns over some senior members of the team.
The India No. 4, Shreyas Iyer has been out of the side since March this year when he had suffered a lower back stress. Iyer spent his days at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru post his surgery and later went through match simulations and practice games to prove his worth for the Asia Cup and World Cup.
Unimpressed with Iyer’s being benched for the final against Sri Lanka, Gambhir, in conversation with Star Sports at the start of the match on Sunday, opined that the India batter should get replaced in the World Cup squad having not performed in Asia Cup and India unsure over his form.
“It is a concern. You were out for such a lengthy time and then you return for Asia Cup, play one match and then again become unfit. I don’t think after this team management will pick up him for such a big tournament. You will see in the coming days that Iyer won’t be part of the World Cup squad and someone will be replacing him. You should always go into a World Cup with fit players. Performance is a different thing. Imagine if a player suffers from a spasm or some other thing then you cannot find a replacement. So if Iyer hasn’t been fit in this tournament then it is very difficult for him to be part of the World Cup because of his injury and then we don’t even know how is form is presently. Whatever his form was, it was 7-8 months back after which he only played in one game. So it is unfortunate,” he said.
Gambhir further added that the team management should rather question the NCA over Iyer’s repeated back injury.
“If questions are to be raised then ask the NCA because that is where he was all these months and then got a clearance from there as well. Who knows maybe they cleared him too quickly?,” he said.