IND vs WI | Players shouldn’t be allowed to pick games, opines Mohinder Amarnath
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Former India cricketer Mohinder Amarnath believes that no matter how much a player has achieved, the team's management shouldn’t allow players to pick and play the games that they want. Not only for India, but Amarnath also wants these rules to be abided by all cricketers across all teams.
India’s dominance at home, their bench strength and their exceptional pace attack has been the talk of the season. So much so, that former cricketer Amarnath has praised the bench strength of the team and spoken highly of the big players in the side who have achieved a lot for the team. However, the veteran believes that no player in the entire cricketing setup should be able to pick the games they want to play. He has pointed out that not many of these international players play enough domestic cricket to “dictate terms regarding selection”.
"They [Indian team] look a settled side with formidable talent in all departments. The bench strength is tremendous and there are several promising players in the domestic set-up as well. In such a situation, no player, however big an achiever, is larger than the game,” Amarnath was quoted as saying by The Times of India, on Friday.
“Nobody should be in a position to dictate terms regarding his selection without playing adequate domestic cricket. There is no player anywhere in the world who should be able to tell the team that he wants to choose his matches. It would be an unhealthy trend to start, particularly when there are hundreds of cricketers across India who are toiling in domestic cricket.”
Although Amarnath has held India as favourites in the home series against West Indies, that starts on December 6 in Hyderabad, he has expressed his concerns about Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya who are currently in rehab recovering from back injuries.
"The only concern I have is for the injured duo, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. A back injury is always hard to come back from," Amarnath shared.
India will play three T20Is against the Windies, followed by as many One Day International games. And Amarnath, who will be on commentary duties, feels that even though the visitors are contenders to win, they’ll miss the big guns like Andre Russell.
"This (T20s) is a format that the West Indians have excelled in, but they are without some of their big guns like Andre Russell. The format lends itself to surprise results and can be turned by one star performance, so West Indies are very much a contender," he stated.
