MUMBAI: Sandeep Patil, former India player and one-time chairman of the selection committee, said on Wednesday that the 3-0 series defeat against New Zealand needs to be a “wake-up call” for the Indian team. However, he backed them to come good in the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia starting Nov 22.
“Unfortunately, we’ve lost the series against New Zealand. But I’m sure they must have learnt so many things from this loss. I hope they repeat their performance of 2020-2021. This series loss was like a wake-up call. It’s not like our team has been playing badly. Few months back they won the T20 World Cup. There are some big players in our team and surely, they will bounce back,” said Patil, who was part of the Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup.
A dashing batter in his prime, Patil added that the current team can take a cue from the 1983 World Cup triumph, a campaign which didn’t start on a great note. “We lost all practice games before winning the World Cup, so they should remember that. You must think positive and play positively, only then you will get a positive result. If you play defensive cricket and think of winning, it is not going to happen,” Patil said on the sidelines of the launch of his book ‘Beyond Boundaries’ at the CCI on Wednesday.
After the defeat against the Black Caps, the entire focus has shifted to how India will fare against Australia and which Indian team will turn-up when the first Test kicks off in Perth on Nov 22. Patil said that they must forget about what happened in the last series against Australia, or the recent one against New Zealand, and instead focus on the job ahead.
He also said the Australian pitches would suit India: “Australian wickets are basically batting-friendly wickets. We lost the series to New Zealand because the batting didn’t do well. I will not use the word failed because it is negative. We did not do well in the batting department. We have Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and so many other good players. I’m sure they would have got together and talked about it.”
There are murmurs about phasing out seniors like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin. Patil, who headed the selection committee that phased out many seniors including Sachin Tendulkar, said that’s part and parcel of the game.
“The decisions we took were not because we hated someone or liked someone. We were looking at the future of Indian cricket. And after our term was over, the Indian team did extremely well. The new generation which replaced the earlier players did very well. The transition talk happens with every selector. There was talk of transition even when I played. Sunil Gavaskar retired, what will happen? Sachin Tendulkar retired, what will happen? Now there is talk about Rohit Sharma. Transition will go on, it’s part of cricket. You must look at the future.”