Attributing India's aggressive approach to Gambhir is foot-licking: Gavaskar

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said Rohit Sharma, not head coach Gautam Gambhir, should be credited for India's new aggressive approach. The Men in Blue recently hammered Bangladesh 2-0 in a Test series, winning the second game in Kanpur despite two and a half days being washed out due to persistent rain.

This was Gambhir’s first Test series as India’s head coach and Gavaskar said anyone attributing India’s current approach to him is “foot-licking of the highest quality”. 

In his latest column for The Hindu, Gavaskar wrote, “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.

"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.

"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 also sharply criticised some English experts who claim credit for India’s aggressive 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."

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