Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has blamed India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav for tarnishing the team’s victory with unnecessary controversy over the concussion replacement issue.
The former India opening batsman claimed that Shivam Dube may not have suffered a concussion during the fourth T20I against England and that the decision to bring in Harshit Rana as a like-for-like replacement was completely unjustified.
Writing in his column for the Telegraph, Gavaskar stated, “In the Pune game, Dube batted right till the end after having got hit on the helmet earlier, so clearly, he was not concussed. So, allowing a concussion substitute itself was not correct. Yes, there could have been a substitute in case he had strained a muscle while batting, but that would have been only for fielding and he could not have bowled.
“Even by the most generous stretching of the like for like term, there was nothing such between Dube and Rana. With tongue firmly in cheek, one can say that they are the same height and have the same standard in fielding. Otherwise, there’s nothing like for like as far as they are concerned. England has every reason to feel done in. This Indian team is a superb team and doesn’t need its wins to get tarnished by such acts.” tlmhe legendary cricketer added.
