Sunil Gavaskar questions unwillingness of Indian players to play domestic cricket

Overview

• Sunil Gavaskar targeted the Indian players who are unwilling to play the Ranji Trophy after India's loss to South Africa in the Kolkata Test 2025
• The former Indian skipper felt that playing at the domestic level would help the Indian batters to bat better on tough pitches
• He claimed that the pitches in the Ranji Trophy offer some turn for the spin bowlers

Sunil Gavaskar targeted the Indian players who are unwilling to play the Ranji Trophy after India's loss to South Africa in the Kolkata Test 2025. The former Indian skipper felt that playing at the domestic level would help the Indian batters to bat better on tough pitches. He claimed that the pitches in the Ranji Trophy offer some turn for the spin bowlers.

As India failed to chase 127 against South Africa in the Kolkata Test 2025, Gavaskar questioned the batting unit. He wondered why batters would not be tested on spin-friendly surfaces in domestic cricket, where the teams will be trying to make it to the Knockouts.

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"A lot of our players do not play domestic cricket. If you play domestic cricket, you will get to play on such pitches, right? Because even at the domestic level, teams are trying to get the points so that they qualify for the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, which means that there will be pitches where the ball will grip and turn a little bit," Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.

"None of our current players are playing Ranji Trophy," - Sunil Gavaskar

The former Indian batter added that not a lot of players are voluntarily willing to be a part of the Ranji Trophy lately. He felt doing so would help them to improve their batting on pitches that have turn on offer, like the one against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in 2025.

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"But none of our players are playing that. None of our current players. How many of our current players actually deign to go down and play Ranji Trophy? Gavaskar questioned the Indian players.