'Viratball' for 'Bazball'

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar believes India’s Kohli can counter England’s aggressive style of scoring runs with his good form and movement

Indian great Sunil Gavaskar has backed ‘Viratball’ to counter England’s much talked about ‘Bazball’ approach in the five-Test series beginning in Hyderabad on January 25.

England’s batting lineup has embraced an ultra-aggressive style, often associated with their head coach Brendon McCullum’s approach towards the game in his playing days.

“The way he’s [Virat Kohli] been batting, his movement looks good. With the form that he’s in, we have Viratball to counter Bazball,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Sunil Gavaskar. Pic/AFP

Kohli, who is 152 runs short of joining the 9000-run club in Test cricket, will be India’s batting mainstay. He has 29 fifties and 30 centuries in 113 matches.

“Yeah, conversion means having more hundreds than fifties. With Kohli, he has as a similar amount of hundreds and fifties, that means he has a good conversion rate,” Gavaskar said.

England drew their previous series against India at home. However hosts India, unbeaten in a Test series since their 1-2 los to England in 2012-2013 season, remain a formidable opponent.

The Test series promises an intriguing clash between India’s spin prowess, led by experienced campaigners like Ravichandran Ashwin, and England’s aggressive batting strategy. 

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India also have the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. “England have adopted a new approach in Test cricket in the last 1-2 years. It’s an aggressive approach where batters look to attack. They just want to play attacking cricket no matter the situation. It’ll be interesting to see if this approach works against the spinners of India,” Gavaskar added. 

Lawrence to join England as Brook heads home

Middle-order batter Dan Lawrence will replace Harry Brook in the England squad for the upcoming five-match Test series against India after the latter returned home because of personal reasons, the ECB announced on Sunday. Lawrence, a 26-year-old from Surrey, will join the rest of his teammates on Monday before travelling to India.

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