If Sunil Gavaskar is backing me, then he must have seen something: Ravi Bishnoi

Emerging leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi has appreciated Sunil Gavaskar after being backed by the legendary cricketer ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.Bishnoi has been regular feature in the white-ball team and has been kept the batters guessing with his bowling accuracy. He also played the Asia Cup 2022 where he took the key wicket of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam. 

“If he (Sunil Gavaskar) is backing me, then he must have seen something in me. You get a lot of confidence when someone like him praises your game. It becomes meaningful,” Bishnoi told Sports Tak.

Notably, Bishnoi has been named in India's T20 World Cup squad as one of the standbys. Earlier this month, Gavaskar had urged him to not worry about his non-selection and keep working hard as he capable of representing India in many global tournaments.

“Well, he has got age on his side. There is another T20 World Cup in a couple of years’ time. There are so many T20 World Cups that he can play in the future. He should now perform in such a way that he becomes undroppable. So that’s the only way to look at it. He is a young man, it’s good experience for him to know he can’t get into every team,” the 1983 World Cup winner had said.

The budding leg-spinner has been consistent with the ball, having registered 16 scalps to his name in 10 matches at an outstanding economy of 7.08. However, despite his ability to provide vital breakthroughs regularly, he could not make it to India's squad as seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, left-arm spinner Axar Patel and wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal were preferred over him.

India's T20 World Cup 2022 squad: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh

Standby players: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar