Sunil Gavaskar Opines That India Will Need Plenty Of Runs To Win Again In Australia

With the Test series between India and Australia not many days away, former Indian opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar has highlighted the area on which the visitors most need to concentrate. The white-ball leg of the tour has produced mixed results for the Indian team, losing the ODI series and bouncing back to clinch the T20I series. With the Test series yet to be a tight affair, Sunil Gavaskar feels India need to score plenty of runs to win down under.

India scored plenty of runs in Australia in 2018-19, headlined by Cheteshwar Pujara, who enjoyed an outstanding series with the bat. The right-handed batsman plundered 521 runs in four Tests at more than 70 alongside three centuries. There were also handy contributions from the likes of Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, and Rishabh Pant that helped tire the Australian bowlers, blunting their esteemed bowling attack to win a series for the first time.

Sunil Gavaskar believes that firstly India has to score plenty of runs in Australia, which they did a couple of years ago. Gavaskar added that most people talk about taking 20 wickets in a Test; however, having runs are equally as crucial and a team couldn’t win matches if not for the runs.

“First and foremost, they will have to score lot of runs, which is what they did two years ago. We all talk about the fact that you need to take 20 wickets to win matches. But, unless you also score runs along with it, you don’t win matches,” Sunil Gavaskar said in a video interaction with Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara on Cricket 7.

In Australia, they won because they took those wickets: Sunil Gavaskar

The 71-year old pointed out that despite being amongst the wickets in South Africa and England, the men in blue could not emerge victorious since the lack of runs was the issue. Nevertheless, in Australia in 2018-19, India had both runs and wickets. Thus, Gavaskar highlights that accumulating runs would be critical.

“India took 60 wickets in the three Test matches against South Africa, but they still lost 2-1. They also took 95 or 97 wickets out of 100 wickets in England and they still lost. They didn’t score enough runs. In Australia, they won because they took those wickets. But, at the same time, they scored lots of runs. So, I think India will need to score lots of runs to win the series again,” he added.

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