“You don’t deserve substitute if you’re not good enough to play the bouncer,” quips ‘old fashioned’ Sunil Gavaskar

“You don’t deserve substitute if you’re not good enough to play the bouncer,” quips ‘old fashioned’ Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar

Australia suffered second straight loss against India as concussion substitute Yuzvendra Chahal bamboozled the hosts. Chahal took the field in the second innings after Ravindra Jadeja showed symptomps of concussion during the innings break. Jadeja was struck on the helmet by a Mitchell Starc bouncer during his explosive 44 run innings. Chahal’s game changing performance after being left out of the original XI has led to a huge debate if the substitution was fair or not.

Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar is not happy with the concussion substitute rule. Gavaskar feels that players who are not capable to deal with a bouncer don’t deserve a concussion substitute. Commenting on the debate if Chahal was a “like for like” replacement for Jadeja, Gavaskar shares that he doesnt have a problem with the substitution.

“On the business of concussion substitute itself, I don’t agree because maybe I’m old-fashioned. I’ve always believed that if you’re not good enough to play the bouncer. And you get hit on the helmet then you don’t deserve substitutes,” Gavaskar told India Today.

No problem with Chahal replacing Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja and his concussion substitute Yuzvendra Chahal

The former Mumbai batsman fails to understand why there is so much “noise” around the topic when match referee David Boon cleared Chahal to replace Jadeja. Gavaskar points out at if Boon doesn’t have an issue despite being a former Australia cricketer then why should anyone else debate about it.

“But at the moment it is being allowed and according to the rules of the game, everything was done according to it. And there was no problem with Chahal playing instead of Ravindra Jadeja.”

“They normally say like for like, you can argue that Chahal’s not an all-rounder. But anyone who goes out with the bat whether he scores 1 run of 100 runs is an all-rounder as far as I’m concerned. And he bowls so it’s a like for like replacement. And the Australian match referee had no objection. So I don’t see why there is so much of noise about it.”

Jadeja has been ruled out of the rest of the T20 series following the concussion. Following his exclusion, Shardul Thakur has ben named as Jadeja’s replacement for the final two T20Is in Sydney. Shardul scalped three wickets in the final ODI.

Also read : “Australia shouldn’t complain, they also got that advantage” – Virender Sehwag recalls 2019 Ashes incident amid concussion substitute row