Sunil Gavaskar was critical of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal after their failures in the first innings of the Pink Ball Test.
Indian openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal disappointed with their outings on the opening day of the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide on Thursday. While Shaw was dismissed on a duck on the second ball of the match, Agarwal looked significantly resilient for his 17, but was dismissed by a peach of a delivery from Pat Cummins.
Former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar ripped into Shaw's batting technique, as Starc exploited the batsman's weakness outside the off-stump. The bowler trapped Shaw with a delivery angling back in, as he committed for a cover drive.
"Even today, have a look at where his bat ends. There is such a big gap between bat and pad. Just the second delivery of the game and you want to make sure that you are playing with soft hands. You are playing as late as possible. The whole idea in Test match cricket is that you don't go there," Gavaskar told 7Cricket.
"Then you are leaving that much of a gap between bat and pad, allowing for any late movement, either to get an inside edge or snick between bat and pad,"
"The trick is to try and play as close to the pads as possible, which means your bat speed has to be minimal at the start of the innings.
"As you grow in confidence, yes then you go and play your shots. But at the start when you are not even off the mark, you want to try and reduce your bat speed. Don't leave any gap between bat and pad,"
Talking about Mayank Agarwal, Gavaskar said that a "truck" could've passed through the gap between bat and pad on the delivery of his dismissal.
"Well again, you can have a look at this. He's (Mayank) played very hard at the ball, later on. This particular shot shows that the bat is close to the pad. It wasn't. The ball snicked through there was such a big gap..a truck could have gone. A truck could have gone between that bat and pad. So that's what the Indians are making a big mistake," Gavaskar said.
