Sunil Gavaskar had to leave India vs England commentary midway. Here’s why | Cricket

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar had to leave his commentary duties for the India vs England second Test at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam midway after learning that his mother-in-law, Pushpa Mehrotra, had passed away. Gavaskar reportedly flew from Visakhapatnam to Kanpur on Friday afternoon to be with his wife Marshneil Gavaskar, and their family.

The former India captain was in the commentary box during the first session of Day 1 and even shared his insights on-air on India captain Rohit Sharma’s tame dismissal to debutant Shoaib Bashir.

Notably, Gavaskar lost his mother, Meena, in similar circumstances in December 2022. Gavaskar’s mother passed away at the age of 95 due to age-related issues when the legendary cricketer was on commentary duty in the India vs Bangladesh Test match in Dhaka.

Gavaskar, one of the best openers the world has ever seen, was the first cricketer to breach the 10000-run mark in Test cricket. He retired with 34 Test centuries – the most at that time. It was later broken by Sachin Tendulkar.

Yashasvi Jaiswal stars for India on Day 1 of 2nd Test

As far as the action on Day 1 of the India-England is concerned, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s marathon 179* took India to 336/6 at stumps.

Unlike the series opener, Jaiswal made sure he converted his strong start into a big hundred but the other Indian batters failed to make the most of batting-friendly conditions.

The 22-year-old now has two hundreds and as many fifties to his name in only his 10th Test innings. His maiden Test ton — a 387-ball 171 — came against the West Indies last year.

Jaiswal, whose special effort comprised 17 boundaries and five sixes, had R Ashwin (5) by his side at stumps.

India made 111 runs in the final session for the loss of three wickets including Axar Patel (27 off 51) and K S Bharat (17 off 23). For England, debutant Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed picked up two wickets apiece.

Debutant Rajat Patidar (32 off 72) played one on to his stumps while offering a forward defence to leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. A total of 93 overs were bowled with four spinners in operation.

Trailing 0-1 in the five-match series, India would like to get to at least 500 on day two and then put pressure on the England batters on a pitch where variable bounce is expected to come into play from day three.