Unfair to blame India batsmen, says Gavaskar

The trio of Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc produced a sensational performance as the visitor collapsed to its lowest Test score of 36. India’s earlier lowest score was 42 against England at the Lord’s in 1974 and Gavaskar was a part of that team 46 years back.

“I mean, any team that is all-out for its lowest Test score since the time it started playing Test cricket, that’s never good to see,” Gavaskar told ‘Channel 7’ after India’s eight-wicket loss. “But having said that, if any other team had been facing that kind of bowling, they would have also got out, maybe be not all-out for 36, maybe 72 or 80-90. The way Hazelwood, Cummins bowled and the earlier three-over spell from Starc, they asked a lot of questions,” he explained.

“So it’s not fair to blame the India batsmen for the way they got out because it was just simply superb bowling by the Australian bowlers,” he added.

After ending the second day with a 62-run first innings lead, India faced a batting collapse in the first session of day three. None of its batsmen reached double digits as Hazlewood (5/8) and Cummins (4/21) terrorised the tourist into submission.