Sunil Gavaskar: I wanted to bat like Rohit Sharma

Bengaluru: Former India opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar has said he wanted to bat like Rohit Sharma but lacked confidence. Gavaskar, who was the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, praised Rohit for his attacking batting in both ODIs and Tests.

Recently, Rohit was chosen for the prestigious Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India.

The Mumbai right-hander has ruled the limited-overs formats but he did not replicate the same amount of success in Tests.

However, last year, he was promoted as an opener in the five-day format, scoring three hundreds, including two in one Test, in five games. He is the only batsman in ODI history to have scored three double tons.

Speaking at India Today’s E-Inspiration, Gavaskar said, “The way you see a Rohit Sharma opening the batting in one-day cricket, Test cricket smashing from the first over.”

“That is what I wanted to play. Circumstances and, of course, lack of confidence in my ability did not allow me to do that. But when I see the next generation doing it, I am absolutely over the moon, I love watching the next generation because there you see progress. You see how they are setting the bar higher for the next generation,” he added.

The 33-year-old Rohit has scored more than 9,000 runs in ODIs and over 2,000 runs in the longer version of the game.