'Go and hammer West Indies 2-0, 3-0': Sunil Gavaskar minces no words in stern warning to Team India

Team India may have just concluded their World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 cycle, but their campaign in the 2023-25 WTC cycle gets underway in a month’s time, with a two-match Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean. India suffered a 209-run defeat to Australia in the summit clash of the WTC 2023 final at The Oval in London, and legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar believes beating Windies on their own soil 2-0 “won’t mean anything” unless the mistakes are rectified. Gavaskar had recently criticised India’s batters after their disappointing performance against Australia, and was far from happy with the way Virat Kohli got dismissed in the second innings. “I have been in the teams where we have been knocked out at 42 and we had been miserable in the change rooms. We were also criticised heavily. So, I think you cannot say that the current lot is not beyond criticism. They have to be very analytical about what happened, how they get out, why didn’t they bowl well, why didn’t they catch, was the selection of the Playing XI was the right thing, so all these factors have to come in,” Gavaskar told on Star Sports. “You cannot brush this under the carpet like ‘yeah we have got two matches against West Indies’. West Indies are not the best team in the world. You just go and hammer them 2-0, 3-0, whatever the matches are. This doesn’t mean anything because when you come across and if you go to the finals and if you are playing Australia again, making the same mistakes, then how would you win the trophy?”, the 73-year-old added. In their 444-run chase, Indian batters crumbled under pressure after the dismissals of Virat Kohli (49) and Ajinkya Rahane (46), falling to a total of 234 from being 164/3 at one stage. Skipper Rohit Sharma, too, failed to live upto expectations despite scoring 43 in the second innings. This was India’s second straight defeat in a WTC Final. India, under Virat Kohli, had suffered an eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand two years ago at Southampton’s Rose Bowl. Apart from the two Tests, India will play three ODIs and five T20Is against West Indies. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.