India great Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday (December 28) took a swipe at England captain Ben Stokes for his ‘has-beens’ comment for former cricketers during the ongoing Ashes. ‘Has-beens’ generally refers to something that’s old-fashioned and of no significance in the present time.
Stokes and his team have been heavily criticised by former England legends for having just one warm-up game before the Ashes, which they now trail 3-1 after a face-saving two-day win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The skipper initially defended the approach by citing modern constraints and controversially referred to past players as ‘has-beens’, a remark he later said he regretted and called a slip of the tongue.
Gavaskar, writing in his column for Sportstar, said that
modern players, protected by central contracts and concerns over workload, rarely play first-class cricket and are constantly engaged in white-ball formats that demand relentless aggression. As a result, they are mentally conditioned to attack, with little patience for dot balls, and struggle badly when switched to red-ball cricket.
“[The modern batter] thinks counter-attack is the answer, when a little bit of patience, with some deep breaths taken to slow down the adrenaline, might help in reducing the bat speed and the big swing, so even if he miscues or edges, the ball may not carry to the fielder. But then, if he hardly plays any First-Class cricket, how will he mentally get used to adjusting to the required rhythm of a Test match?” Gavaskar wrote.
“England’s win, even though it came in the fourth Test with the series already lost, does prove once again that the more you play, the better you will get, especially in unfamiliar overseas conditions… The point, therefore, is should England have played a few more First-Class games before the first Test? The ‘ares’ do not agree with the ‘has-beens’ here,” Gavaskar added, indirectly referring to Stokes’ remark.
Gavaskar is not the first to criticise Stokes. More flak was piled on his team before the second Test when they decided against using the big break to play an already arranged warm-up game between England Lions and a local Australian team.
