New Delhi: Team India’s recent performance in the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh was praised worldwide where cricket pundits and fans took note of their new “aggressive” approach which has notably come forth after Gautam Gambhir took charge of the team as its head coach. Many termed the new batting style as “Gamball” – a moniker similar to England’s highly famous “Bazball”, both termed after their respective head coaches.
But… Sunil Gavaskar hit out at Gautam Gambhir fans for crediting him with this new avatar of Team India, saying that if anyone needs to be credited, it is solely the skipper Rohit Sharma. “Gamball” claimed the spotlight when India thrashed Bangladesh in Kanpur after breaking their own records of scoring the fastest team 50, 100, and 150. They subsequently scored the fastest team 200 and 250 as well.
It is noteworthy that over two days of the game were washed out due to incessant rain but Rohit and co.’s explosive batting style helped India complete a 2-0 sweep over the visitors, winning the second Test by seven wickets.
Why crediting Gambhir is ‘foot-licking’?
Now that Gamball is trending all over the place, Gavaskar said that crediting Gambhir is nothing but “foot-licking” as the former opener himself never batted in this fashion and that the credit should go to Rohit who has led the batting order by example. Rohit has been an ardent follower of the aggressive approach for quite a long time now as he never fears taking the risk of losing his wicket which was seen in the 2023 ODI World Cup and later during India’s triumph of T20 World Cup 2024.
“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. 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,” Gavaskar wrote in his latest column for The Hindu.
“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,” the former Mumbai batter added.
What’s the solution?
Gavaskar didn’t just call out the problem but had a solution for the same. He said that rather than calling it “Gamball” and making the explosive batting approach Gambhir-centric, it should rather be called “Gohit” after the skipper’s first name, under whom it had been brought.
“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”,” Gavaskar wrote.
Sunil Gavaskar ripped through the backers of Gautam Gambhir who are crediting him for Team India’s new “aggressive” avatar that was seen in the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
