Not a fan of Bazball, says Ghavri

Nagpur: Bazball, quite expectedly, is the buzz word as India gear up to play England in the first Test at Hyderabad on Thursday, but former Indian left-arm seamer Karsan Ghavri feels that on Indian turning tracks, Bazball would be a recipe for disaster.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Bankers Sports Council award function, Ghavri warned against England's attacking style of play in Tests, since the word floating around is the Rajiv Gandhi stadium pitch promises to turn from Day 1.
“I’m not a fan of it (Bazball). I think T20s have corrupted the purity of Tests and Bazball is a perfect example of it. Test matches are being completed inside two days and the style of play has a lot to do with it rather than just conditions,” he said.
Ghavri blamed T20s for the lack of grinding ability in modern-day batsmen. “You see players like Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid were legends of Test cricket because they stood there out in the middle. T20 style of play might give you one-off success but Test requires going through the grind,” he said.
Ghavri played down the ‘no Virat Kohli’ factor ahead of the first Test. “Virat is a quality player and Indian team will certainly miss him but fortunately we have good backups for every player in every format of the game. The structure that the BCCI has developed makes sure that there are 2-3 backups available for any player at any given time. I guess India’s supply of players is the best compared to any team in the world today,” he said. Kohli has cited personal reasons and pulled out of the first two Tests.
The former Indian player also hit out at the Impact Player rule being implemented in IPL. “It makes no sense to play cricket with more than 11 players. There are specialist players for every role. Why bring an impact player and take all-rounders out of the equation,” he said.
India not winning any major ICC title in recent past also does not worry Ghavri. “We are a quality side. There can always be one off day. Sadly, for India, it is coming on the day of finals. But there is no need to make any sweeping changes. If you get the basics right, which India is doing, an ICC trophy should be round the corner."
India’s bowling is winning praises in the last few years, and Ghavri also lauded BCCI for it. “Facilities provided by BCCI at MRF Pace foundation and National Cricket Academy are supreme. We won’t be short of talented bowlers. We have one of the best attacks in all formats of the games,” he said.