IND vs SA: Sunil Gavaskar and Shaun Pollock blast South Africa with 'food on table' comment

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IND vs SA: Sunil Gavaskar and Shaun Pollock blasted South Africa after they got bundled out for 116 and lost the first ODI against India in Johannesburg by eight wickets.

South Africa batting unit which consisted of players like Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller fell flat to an impressive bowling display from Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan.

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar questioned South Africa's careless and carefree approach despite India pacers breathing fire at the New Wanderers Stadium. He has reckoned that players these days are not afraid of failing and losing their spots as they have lucrative T20 deals to fall upon.

“Back in my day, we didn’t have too many options. If we failed, we had to go back to club cricket. And there was no money in club cricket back then. Today, players have options. You play for your country, you play T20 leagues… you still can put the food on the table," Gavaskar told Star Sports after the match.

"And therefore there is this tendency to go bang-bang (with the bat)! (There is a tendency) If they don’t score runs, if they don’t take wickets, if they get dropped, so what? They will still have some T20 contract somewhere, if not with the IPL, then some league or the other.

"That makes players take a lot less responsibility. They try to take the easy way out, which is to go 'bang-bang’. If they succeed, great. If they don’t, the team is 116 all out. So what? There will be another match two days later,” Gavaskar added.

Shaun Pollock also came down hard at South Africa. The legendary pacer criticised the bowling unit of South Africa, before pointing fingers at the batters for not taking responsibility by playing the conditions and putting runs on the board.

“Being a fast bowler who has played for South Africa for these many years, part of our DNA was always to put a team on the park with fast bowlers who had the ability to win a game on their own. I’m afraid that the bowling attack I saw there in the first 10-12 overs, was a little bit more of a bowling defence than a bowling attack.

"It wasn’t what I have come to expect. Couldn’t see how they could have matched what India had put together,” said Pollock while talking on Star Sports after the match.

“I’m afraid that at some stage you have to take on the responsibility and not be positive and actually get some decent runs on the board,” Pollock told Star Sports.

After South Africa got bundled out for 116 in 27.3 overs, India chased down the target in just 16.4 overs and won the match by eight wickets. Gujarat Titans (GT) opener Sai Sudharsan made his India debut and scored 55 unbeaten runs off 43.