Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar seems very disappointed with India’s top-order batsmen in the ongoing first day-night Test match in Australia. India’s experiment for the opening combination backfired badly as they couldn’t get the desired start from the openers.
Team India got off to the worst possible start as opener Shaw was dismissed for a second-ball off Mitchell Starc’s ball duck on Thursday. Following his dismissal, Mayank Agarwal along with Cheteshwar Pujara tried to bring back the momentum. However, soon Mayank Agarwal was dismissed by Pat Cummins. Cummins broke Mayank’s 39-ball stay in the 19th over as he was dismissed on 17 runs.
Sunil Gavaskar pointed out that there was a huge gap between the bat and pad of Prithvi Shaw. He feels that in only the second delivery of the game. one shouldn’t play with soft hands as it leaves a massive gap between the bat and the pad. He said:
“Even today, have a look at where his bat ends. There is such a big gap between bat and pad. Just the second delivery of the game and you want to make sure that you are playing with soft hands. You are playing as late as possible. The whole idea in Test match cricket is that you don’t go there. Then you are leaving that much of a gap between bat and pad, allowing for any late movement, either to get an inside edge or snick between bat and pad,”
Furthermore, Gavaskar highlighted that the batsman must try playing with their bat as close to the pad as possible. He also suggested that the speed of the bat should be at minimal during the start. He said:
“The trick is to try and play as close to the pads as possible, which means your bat speed has to be minimal at the start of the innings. As you grow in confidence, yes then you go and play your shots. But at the start when you are not even off the mark, you want to try and reduce your bat speed. Don’t leave any gap between bat and pad,”
Gavaskar also talked about the performance of Mayank Agar, who was dismissed by Pat Cummins. Gavaskar also accused Mayank of leaving a huge gap between the bat and pad too. Gavaskar joked that a truck could have gone through that the hole. He said:
“Well again, you can have a look at this. He’s (Mayank) played very hard at the ball, later on. This particular shot shows that the bat is close to the pad. It wasn’t. The ball snicked through there was such a big gap..a truck could have gone. A truck could have gone between that bat and pad. So that’s what the Indians are making a big mistake,”
