Sunil Gavaskar picked Pakistan as the favourites against India in the marquee match of the ICC World T20 to be played at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. India, who were the overwhelming favourites to win the title before the start of the mega event, were humbled by New Zealand in their opening match while Pakistan pummeled Bangladesh in their opener. "After the loss to New Zealand, India will be under far more pressure against Pakistan. I feel Pakistan start as favourites for the game on Saturday," Gavaskar told NDTV. Gavaskar said the highly awaited match will be about Indian batting versus Pakistan bowling as usual. "It is still pretty much Indian batting versus Pakistan bowling. However, with the way Indian bowlers have performed recently, they also won't be easy to tackle either. Ashwin (Ravichandran) is bowling well and so is Nehra (Ashish), ever since he has made a comeback. Then you have Jasprit Bumrah. So it will be a test for Pakistani batsman.
'The discussion before this innings with Dhruv was 'go down to the level of your practice and everything will be fine'. The talk is always about staying hungry.'
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar criticised India for their 'over-confident approach' during their shock defeat against New Zealand in the World T20 opener at Nagpur on Tuesday. The Men in Blue had been expected to edge out the Kiwis, who were without their retired skipper Brendon McCullum, as India began their campaign as warm favourites to win the tournament for a second time. But the start-studded Indian batting line-up was undone by NZ's spin trio - Nathan McCullum, Ish Sodhi and man-of-the-match Mitchell Santner - to be bundled out for just 79, their fifth loss from five completed T20 internationals against the Black Caps. Gavaskar said India's batsmen had to take the blame for the loss. Chasing just 127 to win, only three Indian batsmen managed to get into double figures, including three of their top four batsmen dismissed inside the first three overs. "You've got to show a little bit of respect to the opposition," Gavaskar said during commentary. "If the (target) was 160, then I understand that the first ball you face from a bowler, you look to score a few runs because you cannot really afford a dot ball.
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'Hard work is there, but I believe in visualisation and manifestation. Whatever match or series, one or two weeks prior I start preparation looking at the bowling line-up, who will bowl and how will I play them. I play out the scenarios and it helps.'
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India thrashed West Indies by 318 runs in their inaugural World Test Championship encounter but at the onset, there was a debate on the omission of senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The legendary Sunil Gavaskar termed his exclusion as "astonishing".
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Sunil Gavaskar named Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the best captain in the history of the IPL.
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"We were used to seeing that from Dhoni but even those little touches of his where he makes a fielder, a player feel 7 feet tall, are the touches that make him stand out from the other."
India's poor form in the ongoing tour of New Zealand will count for nothing when the team comes to Australia and New Zealand to defend the World Cup title as the current exposure to conditions would work to its advantage during the mega-event next year, feels former captain Sunil Gavaskar.
'Ramchandra Guha has sent down an express delivery at Sunil Gavaskar, the great batsman who seldom wore a helmet while facing the fastest of fast bowlers.' 'Gavaskar may have easily ducked the delivery and Guha would have receded in solitude.' 'But by hitting back at Guha, Gavaskar may have started a barrage of unplayable deliveries,' says Sudhir Bisht about his cricketing hero.
Neither does Shreyas Iyer wants to harp on the past nor is he keen to fret about what the future has in store for him. He just wants to "stay in the moment" and seize the day, as the illustrious Sunil Gavaskar advised him while giving the India cap.
Legendary India players Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxman were of the view that making the showpiece event a 14-team affair with the inclusion of the likes of Afghanistan and Scotland would significantly diminish the level of competition in the league stage.
Amid speculation of a rift between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble, former captain Sunil Gavaskar said it is impossible for a captain and coach to always be on the same page on all cricketing issues.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test run club, Alastair Cook can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test run record. Cook became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar's record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months. Tendulkar -- Test cricket's most prolific batsman with 15921 runs -- was 31 years, 10 months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005. "Well the big advantage that England always has is that they are always playing a minimum of 11-12 Test matches on an average in a year. In 11-12 Test matches even if you score 50 runs per Test match you are getting about 500 runs every year," Gavaskar said.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the performance of India's top-order batsmen save Murali Vijay terming their effort as "below-par" despite the pitch being a tricky one.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar strongly feels that people should restrain themselves from creating a captaincy controversy as Mahendra Singh Dhoni prepares to take over the mantle from stand-in skipper Virat Kohli in the second Test against Australia, starting in Brisbane on Wednesday.
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The Indian batting legend reckons the pressure is now on Australia.
Rohit is currently India's second-highest run-scorer in this competition after Virat Kohli, having amassed 503 in nine matches at an average of 55.88 and a strike rate of 121.49, including a ton and three half-centuries.
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Former batter Manoj Tiwary said India head coach Gautam Gambhir is 'not the right choice' for the role and is better suited to mentoring IPL franchises.
India has played 16 Tests at the venue, but it's not been a happy hunting ground. Individual Indian records, however, are impressive. Rediff.com presents the Indians who scored a century at Lord's.
'It has impressed me immensely, because the way Virat has converted those unplayable balls into playable ones'
'The T20 game is doing very well and there's no need to tinker with it.'
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has picked young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal as the best young talent from the just-concluded IPL-9, terming the Royal Challengers Bangalore player the best in terms of talent and temperament. 25-year-old Chahal took 21 wickets from 13 matches to finish IPL-9 as second highest wicket taker behind pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar's 23 from 17 games. "I am considering those who have temperament and not just talent. Yuzvendra Chahal, Rishabh Pant and Krunal Pandya are the top three. I will pick Chahal at the top as he has got the right temperament," Gavaskar said. "He (Chahal) is not afraid of tossing up the ball and he kept on doing that. When there is some turn on the pitch, there have to be big edges from the batsmen's bat. Chahal also has a big heart and he is not afraid of a big hit. On many occasions, he came back after being hit for sixes to claim wickets," he told NDTV.
Sri Lanka has risen as a noteworthy contender in the Asia Cup, while Bangladesh's growth and potential have garnered attention.
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Well aware of the burden of expectations that comes with a legendary surname, former India player Rohan Gavaskar is miffed at the way the cricket fraternity is following each and every move of Sachin Tendulkar's 14-year-old son, Arjun.
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar on Wednesday called for harsh steps in the setup of the struggling Indian cricket team in Australia, saying some of the players have not learnt from their past mistakes despite making the trip Down Under multiple times. "We have to take harsh step after the series is done. I am not calling for a complete overhaul but there are players who have not learnt from their past mistakes. "There are players who have made 3-4 trips to Australia but they have not learnt from their mistakes. If we are looking at building a team for the 2019 World Cup, we need to blood some youngsters in," a disappointed Gavaskar told NDTV after an unexpected batting collapse pushed India 0-4 down in the five-match series. Gavaskar was more critical of the bowlers who let the team down and said dropping star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for the second game in a row made little sense.
Interim president of Board of Control for Cricket in India Sunil Gavaskar said he is evaluating the request of Bihar Cricket Association (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma, who wants Indian Premier League chief operating officer Sundar Raman removed from his post for alleged involvement in corrupt practices.
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