Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has praised Indian opener Murali Vijay for his performance against England in the fourth Test at Mumbai. After scoring a century in the first Test, Vijay got out cheaply and faced a lot of criticisms as the visitors tested him by bowling short. But, the Tamil Nadu opener overcame all the criticisms by scoring his eighth Test ton and took India to a great position in the Mumbai Test after England posted 400 in their first innings.
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Gavaskar lauded Vijay for the hardwork he put in to negate the short ball threat and regain form before saying that Vijay has grown in stature as a Test batsman in the last couple of years. While speaking to NDTV, Gavaskar said, "Vijay has worked hard to improve his style of playing the short ball. Anil Kumble did well by showing confidence in him, and he has repaid that faith with a terrific innings. He has grown in stature as a batsman in the last two-three years. Vijay has repaid that faith. There is still a long way to go. He needs to get a big one now."
The former Indian skipper also praised the partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay, the pair that has the best numbers for any Indian batting duo in Tests with a minimum of 2000 Test runs between them. He also pointed out that there is a change in Pujara’s batting approach and credited the team management for giving him the license to play his shots.
Speaking about the Vijay-Pujara partnership, Gavaskar said, "There is a change in Pujara’ s batting approach. He plays his shots now. The team management has given him that license. Pujara and Vijay have a lot of confidence in each other. They have been superb together."
R Ashwin equalled Kapil Dev’s record of taking 23 five-wicket hauls and according to Gavaskar, it’s like scoring 23 centuries. "Ashwin now has 23 five-wicket hauls. That's like a batsman scoring 23 hundreds," he added.
He also showed disappointment in England’s field placement in spite of having scored 400 runs on a pitch that is not easy to bat on. "The field was spread out when the Indians were batting. There were not too many fielders in catching positions. You need to build pressure on batsmen in such situations. England failed to do so despite having put plenty of runs on the board," Gavaskar concluded.
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