Both Khan and Gavaskar believe the IPL is to blame for all of India’s failures

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan and India batsman Sunil Gavaskar have launched a scathing attack against the Indian team after they narrowly beat England 3-2 in their recently concluded ODI series.

Both legends were concerned about the number of runs the Indian bowlers were giving away during the death overs and the poor starts many of the top order batsmen were making.

“In India, who are the most famous? It’s the batsmen,” Gavaskar told NDTV. “They are the one’s who are known much more than the bowlers because of the performances they’ve had over the years. I think they are the one’s you’ve got to hold responsible.

“They have been terribly out of form since the World Cup. It’s been a long time since they struck form.”

Khan noted that there were two common problems India faced whenever batting second during their limited overs series against both Pakistan and England.

“When you choose to bat second in an ODI, you have two pressures,” Khan said. “One is that of a quality bowling attack and the second is the pressure of the scoreboard. Each time a batsman is trying to get himself in, he has the (asking) run-rate going up.”

Khan also believes that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is mainly responsible for India’s failure during the four-Test series against England last year and for all the other embarrassments they have suffered in the longer format over the past 18 months.

“I have been watching Indian cricket till the World Cup last year (2011),” Khan added. “I have got to say this – unless Indian cricket deals with this IPL, unless you work out a balance between Test cricket and this 20-20 cricket and the commercial aspect of it, Indian cricket could go down very rapidly because cricketers are made in Test cricket.

“A great Test cricketer will perform anywhere. An IPL cricketer, a 20-20 cricketer may occasionally do well in 20-20 but will never become a great Test cricketer.”

Gavaskar had his own interpretation of the IPL and the seemingly irreparable damage it has done to Indian cricket.

“In the events after the World Cup, you will know the guys who actually took their places for granted, those who didn’t make themselves available preferred to play the IPL and then go for surgeries,” Gavaskar said. “I think those are the guys who instead of looking at India were looking at contributing for their IPL franchises. If at all you need to take a rest, you need to take a rest from club cricket.”