‘Foot-licking of the highest quality’: Sunil Gavaskar sends strong warning to Gautam Gambhir supporters
New Delhi: Sunil Gavaskar, a legend of Indian cricket, credited Rohit Sharma for the national team’s aggressive approach during the second Test match against Bangladesh. Despite three rain-affected days in Kanpur, Rohit led the team to victory with an assertive style of play. The bowlers dismissed Bangladesh twice in two days, while the batters broke five records in a single day. Gavaskar dismissed the term ‘Gamball,’ noting that Gautam Gambhir never played in such an attacking manner and argued that the approach should instead be named after Rohit.
“As seen in India last year, this approach doesn’t work in Test matches and may surprise the opposition for a game or two at best. While one paper called the Indian batting “Bossball” because the captain or “boss” of the team, Rohit, had shown the way, some from the old powers referred to it as “Gamball” after the Indian coach, Gautam Gambhir,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Sunil Gavaskar emphasized the difference in batting approaches between England and India, stating, “While the England batting approach changed completely under the new regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon 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.” He highlighted that Rohit Sharma’s aggressive style has been consistent, even before England’s transformation under Stokes and McCullum.
“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.”
“Instead of using the words this-ball or that-ball, I would suggest using the skipper’s first name, Rohit, and term it the “Gohit” approach. Hopefully, brainier people will come up with a trendier name for this rather than the lazy option of calling it after “Bazball,” the former India skipper added.