Hard to understand this Indian team’s psyche: Gavaskar

Gavaskar said the repercussions of the tour to Australia would be long-lasting for the team.

Yahoo! Cricket – Sat 3 Mar, 2012 12:00 PM IST

Calcutta (The Telegraph): Hammered on the field for most of the Australian summer, Team India are also facing the heat off it.

On a day when India’s hopes of reaching the tri-series finals were crushed, former captain Sunil Gavaskar blasted the Indian players’ “psyche”, alleging that it is very hard to understand the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men react on the field.

“When they get through an achievement like a fifty, hundred or a wicket they snarl, snap and swear but when they drop a catch, they smile... It should be the other way round. It’s very hard to understand the India team’s psyche,” Gavaskar said during a show on NDTV.

For India to make the best-of-three finals, a Sri Lankan loss was a must on Friday. But the gutsy Lankans fought a brave battle to defeat Australia by nine runs. Thus, India's woeful tour Down Under ended on a sorry note.

Gavaskar said that the Indians did not seem to be hurt enough from the crushing losses they suffered at the hands of Australia. “There were occasions when it looked like they were not hurt enough... There were a few examples... Ishant Sharma dropped a catch of Michael Clarke off his own bowling and what do you think the reaction was... He was smiling... You don’t smile when you drop a catch and Clarke went on to score a triple hundred."

“Umesh Yadav squandered a sharp caught-and-bowled chance in the last Test and the Australian player went on to score a hundred... What was Umesh’s reaction... He was smiling. I just don’t understand the logic behind smiling. I mean when you smile, everybody smiles with you... That was something which was hard to understand."

“The anger, that pent-up frustration from inside... That was missing. I don’t think that’s the way you want to set an example for young kids watching all the action… I don't understand why whenever you score a hundred, you should be swearing and if you take a wicket you should be abusing,” Gavaskar said.

Gavaskar also said that the repercussions of the tour to Australia would be long-lasting for the team. “It (repercussion) is going to be long lasting. But if you go by the team selected for the Asia Cup, it does not look like an immediate one. Sometimes you don’t want knee-jerk reactions."

“But who knows, by the time September comes in, when India have an International assignment, you could be in for some changes. May be after the Indian Premier League, from June to September, when everybody can sit together and look at what is best for the Indian cricket. That’s probably the time when you will find a few more changes,” he said.

Gavaskar also added that it was India’s best opportunity to win a Test series in Australia. “This was India’s best chance to win a series in Australia. Australia were ruffled... We had the chance from the first Test itself… We allowed it to slip away,” he said.

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