During the first innings of the ongoing Adelaide Test, both the Indian openers Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw were bowled out. Only in the second ball of the innings, Mitchell Starc sent back the latter for a duck while Pat Cummins bowled a beauty to notch Mayank’s wicket for 17 runs. The duo was back in the pavilion by the 19th over. Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian captain, has slammed the openers for the poor batting technique.
While talking to 7Cricket, Gavaskar pointed out that Prithvi Shaw left a big gap between his bat and pad and criticized his approach towards the new ball. The young Indian opener has been selected over Shubman Gill, who had played impressive knocks in the pink ball warm-up game.
“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,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Truck Could Have Gone Between Bat And Pad – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar has advised Shaw to keep his bat as close as possible at the start of the innings and start getting aggressive after setting himself in the field.
“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,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
Sunil Gavaskar iterated the same for Mayank Agarwal whom Pat Cummins get better off. He left the huge gap between his bat and pad and the world-class bowler bowled a good length to take the bails off.
“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,” Sunil Gavaskar further said on Mayank’s dismissal.
Meanwhile, India has also lost Cheteshwar Pujara‘s wicket, who was seven runs short for a half-century. Nathan Lyon picked his wicket 10th times in Test cricket. Now, all the hopes are on Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane.