Ashwin might have made a difference at SCG: Gavaskar criticises mid-series retirement
Ravichandran Ashwin’s shocking retirement call in the middle of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series has drawn sharp criticism from batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar
Former Indian spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan spoke about his time with the Indian team and pointed out the differences between the captaincy styles of two former legends- Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar.
He said that while Kapil was an instinctive leader, Gavaskar was more of a planner.
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“I always performed really well under Gavaskar and not so much under Kapil Dev. Kapil was a very instinctive captain while Gavaskar was a captain who would plan things…who would tell you what he expects from you,” Sivaramakrishnan told WV Raman on the latter’s YouTube show ‘Inside Out’.
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“Kapil Dev I think is the greatest sportsperson India has ever produced because he didn’t only play cricket brilliantly as the greatest all-rounder but also other sport,” he added.
“But I think captaincy plays an important part in the development of a leg-spinner or any spinner for that matter,” he further said.
Sivaramakrishnan also had a quick word of advice for current Indian skipper Kuldeep Yadav, who was going through a rough phase before the coronavirus pandemic brought the entire cricketing world to a standstill.
“He has to develop more variations. He has got a good deceptive googly, but he has to develop a top spinner,” he said.
“When you bowl a top-spinner it’s not only over spinning but also dips on the batsman and has an extra bit of bounce.
“The top spinner instead hits the top of the bat. Developing the top spinner is not difficult because the wrist position is between a googly and a leg break so much easier to demonstrate and it just needs a bit of patience and hard work to bowl the top spinner,” Sivaramakrishnan added.
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