Ind vs Aus: Sunil Gavaskar Wants Rohit Sharma To Bat At This Position : After the debacle of team India in the first day-night Test match against Australia, India’s opening combination has become the talking point after the Adelaide Test. Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal, both the Indian openers failed to contribute much with the bat.
Prithvi Shaw has found himself at the receiving end of criticism and trolling because of his consistently poor performances. He was dismissed on a duck in the first innings and later after scoring 4 runs in the second innings. Team India had already started missing the presence of the ‘Hitman’ Sharma on the field.
Ahead of the first test match, Rohit Sharma had stated that he is ready to play at any position for the team, given that Virat Kohli won’t be available to bat at four, as he will be flying back to Mumbai. However, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar feels that Rohit Sharma should bat at the opening position for team India.
Recently, during an interaction on Channel 7, Sunil Gavaskar backed Rohit Sharma for the opening position. He said:
“He (Rohit) will definitely play. He is a better Test player than Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw. If he is fit then he will straightaway slot at the top of the order,”
Sunil Gavaskar also talked about the flawed technique of Prithvi Shaw and pointed out that there was a big gap between his bat and the pad, which eventually resulted in him getting bowled. He said:
“You can see he (Shaw) was pushing at the deliveries (in warm-ups), playing with hard hands and that has been his major problem,”
He also elaborated that the huge gap between the bat and the pads results in the opening of a huge gate only for the ball to hit the wicket. He said:
“Even in this Test, there was such a big gap between bat and pad. It was just the second delivery of the game (first innings dismissal). You want to make sure that you are playing with soft hands and as late as possible.”
He added:
“The whole idea in Test match cricket is not to go there (take the bat far from the body) because then you are leaving a gap between bat and pad, allowing for late movement to get an inside edge or sneak between bat and pad. The trick is to play as close to the pad as possible… you can play shots later but at the start, you can’t leave the gap,”
