When a team struggles on the biggest stage, every decision comes under the microscope. During the ongoing Ashes series, England’s preparation, or the lack of it, has sparked a heated debate and former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar has now added his voice to the discussion, taking a clear swipe at the England captain Ben Stokes.
The controversy began when England faced criticism from former players for heading into the Ashes with just one warm-up match. With the team trailing 3-1 in the series, despite managing a brief morale-boosting win in Melbourne, questions around preparation refused to die down. In defending his team’s approach, Ben Stokes pointed to modern scheduling pressures and workload management. However, his reference to former cricketers as “has-beens” struck a nerve. Though he later admitted the remark was a mistake and said that he regretted it, the damage had already been done.
Writing in his column, Sunil Gavaskar addressed the issue from a broader cricketing perspective. He pointed out that modern players, protected by central contracts and strict workload planning, rarely get sustained exposure to first-class cricket. Instead, they are constantly playing limited-overs formats that reward aggression and quick scoring. Over time, this conditions batters to attack instinctively, often at the cost of patience and control which are qualities essential for Test cricket.
Sunil Gavaskar explained that red-ball cricket demands a different mindset. Slowing down, trusting defence and managing adrenaline are skills that come only with repeated exposure. Without regular first-class matches, players struggle to adapt when conditions become challenging, especially on overseas tours.
He also noted that England’s lone Test win, even though it came after the series was effectively decided, still highlighted an important truth, the more you play in unfamiliar conditions, the better prepared you become. That, according to him, is where the disconnect lies between current players (ares) and former cricketers (has-beens) who believe in thorough preparation.
Sunil Gavaskar wasn’t alone in his criticism. England faced further backlash earlier in the series when they chose not to use a long break to play a previously arranged warm-up match involving the England Lions. For many observers, it reinforced the belief that experience and preparation still matter, no matter how modern the game becomes.
In the end, Sunil Gavaskar’s message was clear. Labels aside, Test cricket continues to reward patience, preparation and time spent in the middle, lessons that history has taught, and the present may still need to relearn.
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