We have Viratball to counter Bazball: Sunil Gavaskar

Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar stated that India have ‘Viratball’ to counter England’s Bazball approach in their upcoming Test series, which is slated to begin on January 25 in Hyderabad. The star batter is in remarkable form, finishing as the leading run-scorer in the ODI World Cup 2023. After which, the 35-year-old has done a decent job in the two-match Test series against South Africa and showed his intent in the second T20I against Afghanistan. 

He has been the difference maker for India for a long time and Gavaskar has backed him to walk the walk once again. Notably, under the leadership of Ben Stokes, the Three Lions play an aggressive brand of cricket but in the spin-friendly conditions of India, they might struggle. Keeping that in mind, the 74-year-old also added that he is eager to see England’s approach in the five-match Test series. 

“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. The way he's been batting, his movement looks good. With the form that he's in, we have Viratball to counter Bazball,” Gavaskar said while talking to Star Sports.

“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,” he added.

Kohli reached Hyderabad ahead of first Test

After the completion of the T20I series against Afghanistan, players were given a small break. They are all set to reunite on January 21 in Hyderabad and are expected to have their first training session. Kohli reached Hyderabad on Saturday, January 20 but may leave for Ayodhya on January 22.

As per reports, BCCI officials have permitted him to travel for Ram Mandir’s Pran Pratistha Ceremony. Meanwhile, it needs to be seen if other cricketers like Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja join him.