Ever wondered how Sunil Gavaskar would have batted like if he was playing Twenty20 cricket?
Hear it from the 'Little Master' himself.
"I would think I would bat like somebody like Rohit Sharma, because he plays classical shots as well. He can bludgeon the ball, but he is more orthodox."
Rohit, who also hails from Mumbai, emerged one of the top batsmen in the Indian Premier League last month. He then continued his good batting form in the warm-up matches for the ICC World Twenty20, hammering 80 from 53 deliveries, as India crushed arch-rivals Pakistan by nine wickets in one of them.
During his playing days Gavaskar had a reputation of spending hours and hours at the crease. So, would he have enjoyed the shortest version of the game?
"Every time I am asked whether I would have enjoyed playing this format, I reply saying yes hundred per cent I would have enjoyed playing Twenty20 cricket, because there are only 20 overs of fielding."
Asked who he would include in his Twenty20 team, he replied: "Well, Kapil Dev for one.
"I would even look to open the batting with Kapil. Then, I would certainly have Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Again, because he can bowl a few overs, apart from hitting the ball everywhere.
"These are the two guys I would certainly have in my side.
"I would look to have, like we had in 1985, the flexibility where we had batsmen who could bowl. We had guys like Mohinder Amarnath, who could bowl, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, who all were all-rounders."
Twenty20's defending champions India boast a strong batting line-up, which even Gavaskar relishes watching and commenting on.
"The Indian batting has so much variety and explosiveness about it. I like to watch Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma, for the elegance that he brings to the game. The Indian batting has got the variety, it has got elegance, it has got classical cricket and, at the same time, it has got the explosiveness which is exciting."
