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'Different rules for different people': Gavaskar questions team management on why Natarajan was not given paternity leave

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Dec 23, 2020, 08:35 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Gavaskar went on to slam the team for not using R Ashwin properly despite being a prolific wicket-taker in the series. 

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar criticised team management over "double standards" in terms of treating their players. Batting great Gavaskar cited skipper Kolhi's paternity leave as an example of how there are different rules for different players in Team India. 

Team India skipper Virat Kohli left Australia to be with his wife Anushka Sharma or the birth of their first child. The leave was granted to skipper Kohli ahead of India-Australia series. Rahane will lead Team India for remaining three Tests against hosts Australia. However, Gavaskar slammed the board and questioned why was T Natarajan not allowed to leave when he became a father during the IPL 2020 playoffs.

Sunrisers star Natrajan had an impressive IPL 2020 season, he became a father in November this year. But, the paceman did not leave after the end of Indian Premier League as he was included in the bowling unit for the Tour in Australia. Natrajan left a mark in the series with match-winning performances for the Men in Blue.

"Another player who will wonder about the rules, but, of course, can’t make any noise about it as he is a newcomer. It is T. Natarajan. The left-arm yorker specialist who made an impressive debut in the T20 and had Hardik Pandya gallantly offering to share the man of the T20 series prize with him had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were going on," wrote Gavaskar in his column for Sportstar.

"He was taken to Australia directly from UAE and then looking at his brilliant performances, he was asked to stay on for the Test series but not as a part of the team but as a net bowler. Imagine that. A match-winner, albeit in another format, being asked to be a net bowler. He will thus return home only after the series ends in the third week of January and get to see his daughter for the first time then. And there is the captain going back after the first Test for the birth of his first child. That’s Indian cricket," Gavaskar added further.

Gavaskar went on to slam the team for not using R Ashwin properly despite being a prolific wicket-taker in the series. 

"Different rules for different people. If you don’t believe me ask Ravi Ashwin and T. Natarajan," Gavaskar concluded his column.