'It's their fault to take their eyes off the ball' - Deep Dasgupta slams Tim Paine for his 'sideshows' comment

Australian Test skipper Tim Paine has managed to grab all the headlines owing to his statement regarding India winning the iconic Gabba Test due to sideshows. Earlier in the year, India retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia by winning the four-match Test series in Australia. The second consecutive defeat against India in the Test series hasn’t gone down well with the Australian side.

Months after the 2-1 loss in the Test series, Tim Paine came up with the reason behind India breaching Gabba and scripting a historic victory. Paine believes that India has mastered the art of distracting the opposition team with irrelevant topics before the game. With this statement, Paine made reference to rumors that surfaced before the Gabba Test. 

It was speculated that India isn’t willing to play in Gabba owing to the quarantine rules. “Part of the challenge of playing against India is they’re very good at niggling you and trying to distract you with stuff that doesn’t really matter and there were times in that series where we fell for that,” Tim Paine was quoted by news.com.au.

India’s renowned commentator Deep Dasgupta detailed his opinion on the issue as he defended the Indian side saying that India has never played mind games and sideshows. Deep held the Australian team responsible for taking their eyes off the game and getting distracted by off-field matters. 

I don’t think I have ever heard of the Indian team playing mind games and sideshows: Deep Dasgupta

He further added that India made no official statements regarding their reluctance to travel to Brisbane and they were just rumors. Thus, it was Australia who messed up and they need to take the blame for the same instead of blaming India for playing mind games. 

“The fact that they did take their eyes off the ball is their fault, isn’t it? There was a genuine issue there, it was not that India was trying to plan up an issue. It was a genuine issue which the Indian team brought up and mind you none of the players, team management, and coaching staff said anything about it. It was just hearsay or people generally talking or rumors,” Dasgupta told Sports Today.

“So, basically they messed it and lost after 30-plus years at Gabba, they lost back-to-back series to India without Indian team not having quite a few players available for that game. It’s their fault to take their eyes off the ball. I don’t think India played any mind game, to be honest. I find it really amusing that he has to bring this up now and I mean just too bad that they fell for it. I don’t think I have ever heard of the Indian team playing mind games and sideshows,” he added.