3 times Sunil Gavaskar launched a scathing attack on the Indian men's team

Following India's shambolic defeat in the WTC final, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar didn't mince his words while criticising the Indian team.

India's disappointing run in ICC events continued after going down to Australia by 209 runs. During the post-match show, the legendary former cricketer expressed his utter disappointment with the Rohit Sharma-led side. He even went to the extent of demanding an answer from Virat Kohli, who played a reckless shot at a crucial juncture of the game.

Coming into Day 5 of the WTC final, Australia were the firm favourites but India still had an outside chance of making history.

With 7 wickets still in hand, India needed 280 to win on the final day and expectations were high from the pundits that there was a possibility of something really special.

However, what transpired was reckless batting from senior pros like Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

Both these batsmen had played out the first half an hour without too many false shots and it looked like they had weathered the storm.

However, Kohli played a horrible shot in the context of the game, flashing at a wide, full delivery from Scott Boland, giving a catch to the slips. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals as Australia were crowned the new World Test Champions.

Gavaskar lamented the shambolic loss and was disappointed with the way India capitulated on Day 5.

He further opined that in cricket, you win some and you lose some, but it's the manner in which you lose which is important. India was never in the game, right from Day 1, and the catch-up cricket proved too much in the end.

This wasn't the first time that Sunil Gavaskar let his real feelings be known without much mollycoddling. He has often been scathing in his opinions on various issues and the Indian team has been on the receiving end when they haven't played well.

Let us have a look at 3 other instances when Sunil Gavaskar launched a scathing attack on the Indian men's team:

#1 Lashing out at Virat Kohli and the management for having different rules for different players

Gavaskar has been quite vocal about Virat Kohli and his approach in the recent past. The former India captain has not minced words when underlying the problems between Kohli and some of the senior players.

Gavaskar suggested that there cannot be different rules for different players, referring to Virat Kohli's departure from Australia mid-way through India's tour Down Under. This happened during the 2020-21 series, due to the birth of Kohli's first child.

In a column for the Sportstar, Gavaskar criticised the Indian cricket board for not treating their players equally.

He gave the example of T Natarajan. He was taken from the IPL 2020 playoffs straight to Australia for the tour and couldn't see his child who was born in this period before returning from Australia. Many claimed that it was Natarajan's personal decision to stay back and the board had not forced him to do so.

#2 Criticising Kohli for favouring Sourav Ganguly and not crediting yesteryear's teams

Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli had a fallout very recently

Back in 2019, after India won a home series against Bangladesh 2-0, Virat Kohli praised Sourav Ganguly, the then BCCI president, in the post-match presentation ceremony. Kohli said that it was under the leadership of Ganguly that India developed a winning culture and his team is just carrying forward the legacy.

"The idea is to establish yourself in the middle and we have learnt to stand up and give it back. It all started with Dada's team and we are just carrying it forward," Virat Kohli had said after winning the Test match against Bangladesh in Kolkata back in 2019.

Gavaskar wasn't particularly happy with Kohli heaping praise on Ganguly alone and pointed out that the teams before Ganguly had also achieved notable success.

Gavaskar stated that the Indian team also won a lot of matches in the 70s and the 80s when Kohli wasn't even born.

"This is a fantastic win but I would like to make a point. The Indian captain said that this thing started in 2000 with Dada's (Ganguly's) team.

"I know Dada is the BCCI President, so maybe Kohli wanted to say nice things about him. But India was also winning in the '70s and '80s. He wasn't born then," Gavaskar had said in the post-match show.

#3 When Sunny G questioned Hardik Pandya's credentials as an all-rounder

Hardik Pandya celebrates taking one of the wickets in the last Test series he was part of

The former India skipper never backs away from taking a dig at the Indian players due to their below-par showing.

One such incident was way back in 2018 when Gavaskar questioned the credentials of Hardik Pandya as an all-rounder after India went down 1-4 in a Test series in England.

Following India's defeat in the 4th Test, Gavaskar stated that India was over-reliant on Virat Kohli and Hardik was nowhere close to being an all-rounder whom India can bank on.

Hardik scored a half-century and took a fifer during India's only victory in the series, but had a forgettable outing overall in the five-match contest.

"You want to call Hardik Pandya an all-rounder? Whoever wants to call Pandya an all-rounder may call! But I don't think so," Gavaskar had said back then.

Incidentally, Hardik hasn't played a single Test since the 2018 series in England but has established himself as the all-rounder India were looking for in the white-ball formats.