Legendary Australian wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist has expressed concerns about the potential impact of India’s recent 3-0 Test series whitewash at home against New Zealand on their upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of Australia.
Gilchrist believes that the humiliating defeat will have a significant psychological impact on the Indian team, particularly on its senior players. “It does (have an impact), more for the Indian players and the Indian team internally. They have to be asking themselves pretty hard questions,” Gilchrist told FoxSports.
He added, “I do think on the back of that loss and the fact that it was a clean sweep… I think that will raise some questions internally and the pressure and the expectation and the desire from a passionate cricketing nation to see that change around, that’ll ride heavily on those shoulders of all those players.”
The series was particularly disappointing for India’s experienced players. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli managed only 91 and 93 runs respectively in the entire series, while Ravichandran Ashwin picked up only nine wickets in spin-friendly conditions.
Gilchrist expressed concern about how these players will bounce back from such a disappointing performance. “There are a few ageing players there who may start to even second guess themselves a little bit. There’s some high class cricketers in that Indian squad. It’s going to be fascinating to see how they rebound from that challenge,” he said.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Test future of the four senior players may be at risk. A senior BCCI source told PTI on condition of anonymity, “If India doesn’t qualify for WTC final in England, one can be rest assured that all four super seniors won’t be on that flight to UK for the ensuing five-Test series. In any case, all four have likely played their final Test at home together.”
