'Forget this-ball or that-ball': Gavaskar offers new name for India's Test approach

NEW DELHI: India earned widespread praise for their aggressive batting approach in the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur. Despite two and a half days being washed out due to persistent rain, the hosts still managed to secure a comfortable seven-wicket victory on the final day.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan sparked controversy when he commented on India's aggressive batting, noting, "I see India are playing Bazball."

Vaughan's comment, posted on X (formerly Twitter), referenced England's ultra-aggressive approach under coach Brendon McCullum, dubbed "Bazball."

In his latest column for The Hindu, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar took a sharp dig at certain former experts, without naming anyone, suggesting that the old powers are eager to claim credit for India's current approach.

"Sadly, while the batting was thrilling and refreshing, the names given to the approach were the same old, same old. Just as any scandal is now called this-gate or that-gate after the Watergate scandal over 50 years ago in the United States of America, this Indian batting approach was labelled this-ball and that-ball after the term "Bazball" was coined for the England team's batting attitude. It was called this because "Baz" is the nickname of their coach, Brendon McCullum from New Zealand, who batted exactly as his team is doing - throwing caution to the winds in an attempt to score runs."

Sunil Gavaskar praised the Indian captain Rohit Sharma for his transformative impact on the team's playing style.

"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 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," he said.

"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," he added.

"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 further added.