Former Indian batsman and skipper Sunil Gavaskar has admitted that he is a fan of T20 cricket, unlike many of the players from his generation, who still haven't made a liking to the crash-bang form of cricket. Gavaskar, who was the first player to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket highlighted some of the factors that make the shortest format of the game interesting.
Talking on the Analyst Inside podcast, Gavaskar said that he is left speechless many times seeing some of the most outrageous shots batsmen play in T20 cricket.
"I know a lot of people who played around my time, they're not happy with the T20 format, but I actually love it. I love it for the simple reason that you know it's a 3-hour game, and you get a result, and you get to see so much action. When somebody plays the switch hit and the reverse sweep, I’m out of my chair because I think those are fabulous and incredible shots, and it takes a lot of skill to be able to hit them for sixes," Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar, who comes from the school of textbook batting of timing and placement and batting with the full face of the bat, hasn't hidden his fondness for the modern-day batting of blasting the ball out of the ground and the switch hits, paddles, scoops the players play in the T20 cricket.
Gavaskar was asked to name one batsman he would have liked to bat and named the former South African batsman AB de Villiers and not the likes of Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma.
"AB de Villiers... bat like him, you know 360 degrees, play everything. I mean, just make it look as if you're having a net. He makes it look so simple. He hits a fair distance, and he is very elegant as well. When he hits some of those shots, I love how his bat's follow-through goes right over the shoulder. It's not one of those punches; it’s like a proper shot. I love watching him bat" the former India captain said.
