‘If he bowls 10 overs a day…’, Sunil Gavaskar on how India can become ‘invincible’ in Test cricket

Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar believes India could become an “invincible” side in Test cricket should the team management convince all-rounder Hardik Pandya to return to the Test setup. Hardik Pandya has not played a Test match for India since the 2018 tour of England, with a back injury keeping him out of the longest format ever since.

Hardik’s workload has been a major talking point over the last few years and having said that, the 30 year-old has himself clarified that he is not ready to play Tests again given the fact that he is already playing ODIs and T20Is. Hardik recently scored 144 runs and picked 11 wickets at the T20 World Cup recently.

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India have a hectic Test season ahead of them this year. The Rohit Sharma-led side are scheduled to play two Tests against Bangladesh, three Tests against New Zealand as well as the Border-Gavaskar series later this year in Australia, which will constitute of five Tests.

“Yes, absolutely, they can. I think in the next two months, there should be an attempt to convince Hardik Pandya to play Test cricket. If he bowls ten overs a day to go with his batting, this Indian team could become invincible, and they can surely go on and win the WTC and beat Australia in Australia,” Gavaskar, who turned 75 on Wednesday, was quoted as saying by RevSportz.

India have reached the final of both the editions of the World Test Championship (WTC) so far, but on both occasions, India have fallen short. While they lost to New Zealand in the 2021 final by eight wickets, India suffered an even heavier defeat to Australia two years later, losing by 209 runs.

Talking about the Invincibles tag, only two teams have boasted of that tag in Test cricket — The 1948 Australian side led by Don Bradman and the 2002 Australia team led by Steve Waugh. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal achieved that tag in football, winning the English Premier League title in 2004 without losing a single match.

Hardik made his Test debut on 26 July, 2017 against Sri Lanka in Galle, where he scored a half-century. He followed it up with a century off 70 balls in the next match. During India’s tour of South Africa in 2018, he scored 93 in Cape Town, and in the same year, Hardik scored a half-century and collected a five-fer against England at Trent Bridge, a match that India won by 203 runs. The Baroda cricketer has thus far played 11 Tests for India, scoring 532 runs and taking 17 wickets.