Hyderabad: Former India cricket and renowned commentator Sunil Gavaskar asserted that the credit for India's recent Test win over Bangladesh in Kanpur in two days should go to captain Rohit Sharma instead of newly appointed coach Gautam Gambhir. Gavaskar also noted that under Rohit Sharma's captaincy, the Indian cricket team has adopted an aggressive brand of cricket which was quite evident in the last ODI and T20 World Cups, suggesting the label "Gohit" to describe this bold approach.
In a strongly worded column for Sportstar, Gavaskar expressed his disappointment at Gambhir receiving recognition for India's strategy in the Kanpur Test, labelling it as "foot-licking of the highest order."
The 75-year-old also admitted that Men in Blue's approach was refreshing to see. "However refreshing and thrilling the Indian batting was in the Kanpur Test match, let’s face it: would they have batted in the same manner if there were no points on offer? The much-maligned ICC deserves every bit of applause for changing the perception towards every Test match by creating the World Test Championship," he wrote.
The former India cricketer later went on to criticize the nicknames people have coined to associate with India's aggressive approach, mentioning that it is unjust to credit Gambhir for the team’s tactics as he drew a comparison to how England's recent success in the longest format of the game under new head coach Brendon McCullum.
"While the England batting approach changed completely under the new regime of Ben Stokes and McCullum, we have seen over the last couple of years that Rohit has been batting like this and encouraging his team to do so as well. Gambhir has only been coaching for a couple of months, so attributing this approach to him is foot-licking of the highest quality. Gambhir himself hardly ever batted in this fashion like McCullum used to do. If any credit is due, it is solely to Rohit and nobody else," Gavaskar wrote.
"Just as any scandal is now called this-gate or that-gate after the Watergate scandal over 50 years ago in the United States of America, this Indian batting approach was labelled this-ball and that-ball after the term “Bazball” was coined for the England team’s batting attitude. It was called this because “Baz” is the nickname of their coach, Brendon McCullum from New Zealand, who batted exactly as his team is doing — throwing caution to the winds in an attempt to score runs," he added.
India's attacking approach, especially in batting, is clearly evident with the stat- India broke the world records for the fastest 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250, having scored runs over 8 runs per over. Notably, the world witnessed Indian openers taking the team's score past 50 inside 3.1 overs.
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