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Updated: Sep 03, 2017 12:40 IST

Former skipper Sunil Gavaskar has questioned the selection process of the Indian cricket team stating ‘it looks like all the nice guys are being left out’ and ‘they should start getting a different hair style and some body art done too to get picked in the team’. (LIVE BLOG | SCORECARD)

India have been in superb form of late and crushed Sri Lanka in the ongoing series, which ends on Sunday, taking a 4-0 lead. The side, led by Virat Kohli, had lost just one Test in the recently-concluded 13-match home season, reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy and also beat the West Indies 3-1 away from home.

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While there have been no lapses in the team’s form, Gavaskar questioned the selection of a few individuals.

“The way the selections have gone for this series, it looks like all the nice guys are being left out and they are missing out on fattening their individual career aggregates with bat or ball,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Times of India.

“Maybe they should start getting a different hair style and some body art done too to get picked in the team.”

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The dig is certainly pointed towards the cricketers’ flamboyant lifestyle where fashion has become an integral part with social media playing an active role. From Hardik Pandya to KL Rahul to even skipper Virat Kohli, nearly everyone has experimented with various hair-styles, beard shapes and tattoos.

Gavaskar, however, has justified his stand.

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“India had made changes on expected lines with the unassuming trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kedar Jadhav and Yuzvendra Chahal being left out of the side. Rahul got yet another chance while the top scorer of the just-concluded one-day series in the West Indies - Ajinkya Rahane - sat out once again,” he stated.

“After the magnificent partnership between Rohit Sharma and skipper Kohli had been broken, it was expected that Rahul would come in to bat. He would have had time to settle down and get his eye in. Instead it was Hardik Pandya who was sent in earlier. It didn’t make much of a difference as Sharma got out next over so Rahul came in, but never looked settled and he once again failed to pick Dananjaya’s wrong one. It is understandable to keep the faith in a player but not at the expense of an in-form batsman who has done nothing wrong to be sitting out.”

Gavaskar went on to hail the bowlers for their terrific display. On pitches where Indians have piled on mammoth totals and the hosts have crumbled to paltry totals, he said that a lot of credit was due for the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Pandya and Shardul Thakur, who debuted in the 4th ODI against Sri Lanka.