Sunil Gavaskar was surprised by the turn spinners were getting on the opening day of the 2nd Test at Melbourne. The former Indian batsman explained the reason behind Steve Smith’s dismissal who failed to score. Steve Smith, the world’s No. 1 Test batsman who hit consecutive centuries in first 2 ODIs now has only accumulated 2 runs in ongoing Test series.
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar feels spinner Ravichandran Ashwin planned to restrict Australia batsman Steve Smith from opening up his arms and playing through the offside that saw the bowler dismiss him down the leg side as he was caught at leg slip.
Sunil Gavaskar: Surprised To See Lot Of Turn For Indian Spinners On 1st Day
Ravichandran Ashwin picked Steve Smith’s wicket in the first session of the Boxing Day Test on Saturday for a duck. It was the first time in history that the right-handed batsman was dismissed without scoring against India in the longest format of the game. The senior campaigner extracted extra spin and bounce as Test’s best current batsman played along his wrist to get caught at leg slip.
Sunil Gavaskar was surprised by the turn spinners were able to generate on the opening day of the Test. The former Indian batsman explained the reason behind Steve Smith’s dismissal as the spinner tried to restrict the batsman from playing through off-side.
“First and foremost, I’m pretty surprised at the fact that on Day 1 there’s a lot of turn for the Indian spinners,” Sunil Gavaskar told 7 cricket.
“He’s been bowling straight, he’s been bowling on the middle and leg, it’s been pretty much a plan to try and restrict the batsmen from playing any shot through the off-side. If you look at Smith’s dismissal because maybe he was on zero he wanted to get off the mark, wasn’t able to control it,” he added.
Apart from Ravichandran Ashwin’s 3 wickets, Jasprit Bumrah picked 4 and debutant Mohammed Siraj picked 2 to bundle Australia at 195. India lost early wicket without runs on board but were 36/1 at stumps.
Sunil Gavaskar Not Complaining After Steve Smith Fails To Play Like Marnus Labuschagne
The legendary batsman and commentator also cited how Marnus Labuschagne weathered the storm.
“On the other hand, there were a couple of deliveries when Labuschagne was playing and he shouldered arms, Smith could’ve done that as well but I’m not complaining,” Gavaskar said.
At stumps, India’s score read 36/1 with debutant opener Shubman Gill batting on 28 and Cheteshwar Pujara giving him company on 7. The visitors’ trail by 159 runs with nine wickets still remaining in 1st innings. For Australia, it was Mitchell Starc who picked the lone wicket of Mayank Agarwal to finish the day with figures of 1/14 from four overs.
Pat Cummins bowled without luck to finish wicketless despite bowling four fiery overs. But it was the Indian bowlers sans Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma who once again showed why they are considered one of the best in the business at present.