Sunil Gavaskar would want a young Indian player to be on the flight to Australia

The touring Indian team is currently struggling in the ongoing Test series against England after battling neck and neck in the limited-overs format. The seaming and swinging conditions in the country have exposed the same old problem of the batsmen who have now failed in all the three innings so far. The openers, especially, are not spending more time in the middle due to which the former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar feels that a young Indian batsman can make it to the squad for the upcoming Australia tour.

Shikhar Dhawan has continued to be poor away from home and even KL Rahul has been all over the place with his technique. To make matters worse, Murali Vijay, who had a terrific 2014 tour, has looked a pale shadow of himself which has been putting more pressure on the middle-order. The same happened at Lord’s as the visitors were reduced to 15/3 and were eventually bowled out for 107.

Who is the youngster?

Sunil Gavaskar, in his interview with Mumbai Mirror, believes that Prithvi Shaw might get picked after raking up runs constantly in the domestic circuit. Most importantly, he was amongst the runs in the four-day games for India A during their recent England tour as well. “He has certainly done very well. I think he should be on the selection committee’s radar. He could be on the flight to Australia,” he said.

India dropped Dhawan only after the first Test match and Gavaskar feels that he is being made the scapegoat in every overseas tour. He was of the opinion that the team management has to back him as he’s the left-hander and gives an aggressive option at the top of the order as well.

“My point about Dhawan is that he is always dropped after one Test. Others get another opportunity. He should have also got a second chance. If you look at the scores, in the first Test, he scored more runs than Murali Vijay and KL Rahul. So. what is the criteria? In addition to that, he is a lefthander,” the 69-year-old added.

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