Sunil Gavaskar has an advice for the Indian team playing the first Test

The much-awaited Test series between India and South Africa has finally begun as the first day saw a lot of action being unfolded in the middle. The visitors were tottering at the end of the first day as the fiery pace attack of the home side snuffed their top three batsmen. The Test match is quite balanced though and the first session of the second day will be crucial. However, Sunil Gavaskar has a special advice to the overnight batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma on how to tackle the bowling of the hosts.

Faf du Plessis won the toss and chose to bat much to the surprise of everyone despite having a lot of grass on the wicket. India got off to a dream start with Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking huge wickets of Hashim Amla, Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram in his first three overs. But the counter-attack from AB de Villiers brought some quick runs for South Africa. Eventually, the wickets kept on falling and South Africa were bowled out for 286 runs.

Gavaskar opines

Sunil Gavaskar who is the commentator for the high-profile series has scored a lot of runs in South Africa and felt that the Indian batsmen should play every ball a tad late. “It will be a tough ask for India. Wait and play late as possible. Instead of reaching for the ball, let the ball come to you. The later you play the more chance you have to negotiate the moving ball,” he said while speaking for Sony TEN 1 from the Newlands Stadium. He also backed the overnight duo of Pujara and Rohit to put pressure on Proteas by taking singles.

“They (Pujara and Rohit) should (be) looking for singles. The running between the wickets is important they should put pressure on the opposition. The batsmen need to be patient. They (Pujara and Rohit) need to take a leaf out of AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis book. Rohit should play like AB and Pujara like Du Plessis,” he added.

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