First Sports: Did Rohit Sharma file a complaint against Sunil Gavaskar's criticism?

India captain Rohit Sharma is reportedly angry with the legendary Sunil Gavaskar’s criticism of him following dismal outings in the Australia Tests and Ranji Trophy. According to a report in CricBlogger, Rohit has filed a complaint to the BCCI against Sunil Gavaskar and even said that external factors have led to his batting downfall.

Rohit managed to score just 31 runs from three Tests against Australia in Australia at an average of 6.20. He recently played in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Jammu and Kashmir in Mumbai, where he registered forgettable scores of 3 and 28.

‘Rohit felt it was not necessary of Gavaskar to criticise him’

“Rohit felt that it was not necessary for Gavaskar to criticise him in that fashion and that’s why he complained to the BCCI about Gavaskar,” a source was quoted as saying by CricBlogger.

Gavaskar has repeatedly criticised Rohit not just for his batting performances but also missing the first Test against Australia in Perth. Rohit had opted to skip the Perth Test due to the birth of his second child.

“I have been reading that Rohit Sharma might not play the first two Tests of the Australia series. I feel that, in that case, the selection committee should appoint Jasprit Bumrah the captain of the side for the entire Australia tour, and tell Rohit Sharma that you will participate as a player in this series. For the first Test match, Rohit Sharma has to be there," Gavaskar had told SportsTak.

Rohit opted to rest himself for the fifth Test in Sydney, with Jasprit Bumrah leading the side. Gavaskar had said at the time that Rohit would relinquish captaincy if he failed to score runs in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests. “If he doesn’t score runs in Melbourne and Sydney and he won’t wait for the selectors to make that call,” he wrote in a column for the Sydney Morning Herald.

The most recent instance of Gavaskar slamming Rohit was after his disastrous outing in the Ranji Trophy match against Jammu and Kashmir. With the focus now shifting to the England ODIs and Champions Trophy, Rohit will miss Mumbai’s must-win match against Meghalaya in the Ranji Trophy, which starts on Thursday (30 January).

“The dismissal of Mumbai’s Test batters once again brought to the fore the perils of the all-out aggressive mode of batting that is nowadays thought of as being central to run-making. It can work on flat pitches, but on pitches where the ball is doing something, there has to be a technique good enough to keep out the good delivery,” Gavaskar wrote in a column for Sportstar.

He also questioned the mindset of players like Rohit. “Whether their hearts were in it or they did that only to ensure they were not stripped of their BCCI contracts, like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were, after missing out on the Ranji Trophy games last year, is known only to them. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s participation meant that Ayush Mhatre, who had got a couple of hundreds and some fifties, had to be left out of the Mumbai side," he added.