Sunil Gavaskar's Brutal Take On WI's Quality: 'Trundlers, More Like Net Bowlers'

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar dismissed the West Indies bowling attack — apart from Jayden Seales — as ‘trundlers’ and ‘net bowlers’ after the team’s innings and 140-run loss to India in Ahmedabad.  He said that the attack was a far cry from the legendary combinations he faced in his time.

West Indies were bundled out for 162 in the first innings, with Indian pacers Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah doing most of the damage. In reply, the hosts smashed 448/5, declaring in a comfortable spot before bowling out the visitors for just 146 runs again, with the match lasting only two-and-a-half days.

“In Ahmedabad, apart from Jayden Seales, the other two were simply trundlers, who looked more like net bowlers than international ones,” Gavaskar

wrote for Sportstar. “No disrespect intended to them, but to see the first bouncer being bowled after half a dozen overs had been bowled made one ask, ‘Is this really the West Indies pace attack?’ Yes, bowling bouncers is a big effort, and on a hot day, it can take a lot out of a bowler, but it is a surprise weapon to stop the batter from moving on to the front foot regularly.”

Gavaskar also rued the decline of the West Indies batting — which studies show is more systematic, with one of the reasons being cricket’s uneven wealth distribution — saying that none of the current players coule compare to the ones he played with.

“For a team that once boasted of the likes of the Three Ws, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, to name just a few, there is simply nobody in this current team who looks like getting a million country miles close to them. Of course, I haven’t forgotten the incomparable Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and the ‘Prince of Trinidad’, Brian Lara. They are geniuses born once in a century and were way above normal human beings,” he said.

India and West Indies will meet in a second Test in New Delhi from October 10-14.