'A century is around the corner for him': Gavaskar expects India batsman to score big in remaining three England Tests
Given the form he has shown in the Test series, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels it is just a matter of time before the star India batsman gets a big score.
India's hopes of registering their first Test series win in England after 14 years received a massive boost with a comprehensive 151-run win in the second Test of the series at Lord's. India dished out a clinical all-rounder performance as everyone contributed to help the team acquire a 1-0 lead. KL Rahul led the way with a century, while Mohammed Siraj was the standout performer with the ball for India, finishing with an eight-wicket-haul in the match.
There were plenty of positives otherwise too. Jasprit Bumrah claimed 3/33 in the second innings, while Rohit Sharma set the tempo in the first scoring an impressive fifty. Rohit missed scoring a century in the Lord's Test but Sunil Gavaskar feels it isn't the end of the world for the India batsman. Given the kind of form Rohit is in, Gavaskar, a former India captain reckons that it is just a matter of time before the opening batsman peels off his maiden century overseas in Tests.
Rohit scored 83 in the first innings of the Lord's Test and added a century partnership with Rahul – the first time in 2010 that an Indian opening pair has put on a 100-plus stand overseas. Gavaskar was highly impressed with the application shown by Rohit, who played himself in during the first hour of play to erase any uncertainties about the pitch and gave India a cracking start.
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"In a five-day Test match, no one has an idea as to how the pitch will behave on the first day – things like whether there is life on this pitch, will the ball bounce more? For that, you need some time and the adjustment Rohit Sharma showed in the first innings, how to do it. He did it brilliantly – what shots to play and what not. Just see how many balls he left, some of them close to the off stump. This adjustment is mental and that is what Rohit accomplished," Gavaskar had said on the Sony Sports Network.
Rohit was 17 runs short of his first Test century away from India, when James Anderson produced a beauty to castle the batsman. Rohit expressed slight disappointment about missing a hundred at Lord's, but Gavaskar feels getting up on the Lord's honours board isn't always everything and that if Rohit can continue scoring runs the way he is, there would be no bigger contribution he can deliver for India.
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"And this is what gives us hope from a player. If you get a player who can guarantee score 80 runs, then in a five-Test series, he would end up with 400-450 runs. What else does a captain need? Yes, he would be disappointed not scoring a century, but getting a century at Lords isn’t everything," Gavaskar, who never scored an international century at Lord's, mentioned.
"You score a century at Trent Bridge, or Leeds… if you score a century for India in whichever part of the world, that is what is important. And the way he is batting, the time he has and the position in which he gets himself in, it feels as if a century is just around the corner."
