Gambhir criticizes Dhoni and Dhawan for skipping domestic cricket

Gambhir criticizes Dhoni and Dhawan: Former Indian cricketer was unhappy with the duo skipping domestic cricket.

Between the ODI series against West Indies at home and Australia in Australia, Indian ODI specialists didn’t have much cricket to play. While some of them played the T20I series against West Indies and Australia, the others rested ahead of the series in Australia.

It was at this time when former Indian cricketers in Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath lashed out at the senior duo of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan for skipping the Ranji Trophy.

Middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu retiring from First-class cricket to concentrate on his limited-overs future was also seen missing the most prestigious domestic tournament.

Speaking during an interaction for ESPNcricinfo, former India opening batsman Gautam Gambhhir didn’t seem too happy with the senior players’ decision to ignore domestic cricket. Gambhir opined that the selectors should have ‘pushed’ the players to play First-class cricket.

“I was a little disappointed because some of the guys should have played first-class cricket. The selectors should have pushed them to play first-class cricket. Because it’s a World Cup year, you’ve got to be in prime form.

“Whether it was MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, all those guys who went to Australia,” Gambhir was quoted as saying.

While Dhoni looked out-of-sorts in the first match at Sydney, he ended being the ‘Man of the Series’ in the series, finishing the second and third match for India at Adelaide and Melbourne respectively.

Having said that, the other two batsmen didn’t look at their best throughout the series. While Dhawan scored 55 runs in three matches at an average of 18.33 and strike rate of 73.33, Rayudu was dropped after the second match for returning with 0 and 24 in Sydney and Adelaide respectively.