'Term It Gohit Approach': Sunil Gavaskar Suggests Renaming Bazball After Rohit Sharma's Kanpur Test Heroics

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar reckons the term 'Bazball' should be renamed to the 'Gohit approach' based on Rohit Sharma's attacking approach in Test cricket.

How Rohit inspires India's Kanpur Test win

Rohit showed the way for his team on how to win a Test match inside two days as he attacked from the word go and the other batters followed suit. As a result, India managed to overhaul Bangladesh's first innings score of 233 in less than 2 sessions, taking a 52-run lead.

Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin then led the attack with the ball to bowl out Bangladesh for 146 which left India with just 95 runs to win. The home side took just 17.2 overs to chase down the target and win the Test by 7 wickets with a session to spare.

Gavaskar's suggestion for world cricket

"Bazball" is a term coined to describe the aggressive, fast-paced style of Test cricket introduced by England’s coach Brendon "Baz" McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

It emphasises fearless, attacking play, encouraging batsmen to take risks, score quickly, and dominate bowlers, even in the traditionally slower format of Test cricket.

The 'Gohit Apprach'

But Gavaskar reckons India captain Rohit Sharma has been playing attacking cricket even before England came up with Bazball.

"We have seen over the last couple of years that Rohit has been batting like this and encouraging his team to do so as well.

“Instead of using the words this-ball or that-ball, I would suggest using the skipper’s first name, Rohit, and term it the 'Gohit' approach. Hopefully, brainier people will come up with a trendier name for this rather than the lazy option of calling it after “Bazball”,” Gavaskar wrote in his columm for Sportstar.

Bazball entertaining but not producing results

Introduced in 2022, Bazball has received mixed views from the cricketing fraternity as England haven't produced the results in Tests over the last couple of years despite playing attacking cricket.

Their approach has sparked debates about Bazball's long-term viability in Test cricket.