Sunil Gavaskar Wanted To Play Like Rohit Sharma In Limited-Overs

Rohit Sharma, who was recently conferred with the Rajiv Ganfhi Khel Ratna Award, has made shot-making look effortlessly easy. The opening batsman captivated the audience with his pull shot which often ends up in the second tier. Rohit Sharma usually starts off slow and accelerates once he scores his century. He has been a joy to watch over the years.

Moreover, Rohit Sharma is the only batsman to hit three double centuries in the ODI format, making it look like a cake walk. Two of his three double tons have come against Sri Lanka with career-best score of 264 runs. By his own admission, Rohit Sharma has said that, if he stays in the crease for the first 10 overs it will be difficult to get him out.

Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has been left might impressed with the way Rohit Sharma approaches his game in the limited-overs format. He also added that the way Rohit Sharma smashes the ball from the onset of the match, is the way I wanted to play in limited-overs and Test cricket, but his ability did not help him.

“The way you see a Rohit Sharma opening the batting in one-day cricket, Test cricket smashing from the first over. That is what I wanted to play. Circumstances and of course lack of confidence in my ability did not allow me to do that. But when I see the next generation doing it, I am absolutely over the moon, I love watching the next generation because there you see progress. You see how they are setting the bar higher for the next generation,” Sunil Gavaskar told India Today’s Boria Majumdar on the latest episode of Inspiration.

Cricket has evolved over the years. In the 90s or early 2000s, cricketers would find it increasingly difficult to bat at a strike rate, most batsmen do in the current situation. Though Saeed Anwar and Charles Coventry came close to scoring a double century in ODIs they fell short before Sachin Tendulkar became the first to achieve the feat.