India cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar slammed his broadcaster Star Sports for using a graphic about Rohit Sharma‘s weakness against left-arm seamers during India’s Super 8 clash against Australia in the 2024 T20 World Cup. While Rohit’s flaws against left-arm seam are widely known, he smacked left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc for 29 runs in an over, en route to his 41-ball 92. However, after Starc did get Rohit out, Star Sports put up a graphic about Rohit’s dismissals against left-arm pacers, which left Gavaskar annoyed.
“Thinking about Rohit Sharma once again, he got out to a left-hander (left-arm seamer). So before the next match, are we going to do another segment about his weakness to left-handers?” asked a bewildered Gavaskar.
Aaron Finch, who was sitting next to Gavaskar in the commentary box, reasoned that there are a lot more left-arm pacers nowadays, with not only Starc for Australia, but also the likes of Trent Boult (New Zealand) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pakistan).
“There are more left-armers playing now, and they are genuine swing bowlers. So that poses a challenge to the opening batter,” said Finch, trying to justify the graphic.
Gavaskar retorted, saying that it isn’t a problem worth highlighting.
“I don’t think you should be looking much into that. If you’re playing attacking shots when the ball is swinging in, you will be out LBW, you will be out bowled,” said Gavaskar, the first man to reach 10,000 Test runs.
While Rohit Sharma played one of the best innings of the 2024 T20 World Cup, his opening partner Virat Kohli got out for his second duck of the tournament. Gavaskar has recently come under attack on social media for his supposed biased analysis towards the dismissals of the two batters.
“Commentators create divide between players and the fans,” one user had tweeted, after Gavaskar criticised Kohli’s shot-selection against Bangladesh, whilst calling Rohit’s approach a selfless one.
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