'He was scoring 70s, 80s, 100s there too': Gavaskar hails 'genius' Rohit for maiden away ton, expects many more to come

Rohit's maiden away century was lauded by several experts and former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, who loved every bit of the technical aspects of Rohit's game.

Rohit Sharma's wait for his maiden overseas Test century ended on Day 3 of the Oval Test, when he peeled off his 8th ton to put India in command against England on Saturday. Rohit scored a magnificent 127 – the second century by an Indian batsman in the series – which put India in a commanding position against England in the fourth Test. India ended the day on 270/3, with a lead of 171 runs, and with seven wickets in hand, find themselves in a strong position.

Sunil Gavaskar lauds Rohit Sharma for scoring his first overseas century (HT Collage)

Rohit's maiden away century was lauded by several experts and former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, who loved every bit of the technical aspects of Rohit's game. Making most of the two dropped chances – once when he was on 6 and other time on 33 – Rohit cashed in on the opportunity and went big.

"Incredible knock. Very, very impressive, for the simple reason that the way he was covering the swing when the ball was new. Not just here, but even in the earlier matches. The way he was playing very late, the way he had the bat and pad close to each other… not pushing at deliveries. Once he settled down, then all the shots began to flow. But then the most impressive thing is the straightness of his bat, when he's defending. Then of course the use of his feet to get to his Test century," Gavaskar said on the Sony Sports Network.

Of the many traits about Rohit that impressed Gavaskar was the batsman's ability to curb his natural attacking instincts – something he has been able to achieve throughout the series – and have more than one shot to the same ball, similar to some of India's greats over the years.

"Once he got to fifty, he opened up. He's widened the range of his shots. He's played the V, played the cuts and the sweep shot. That's exactly how a Test match innings has to be built. That is the biggest challenge of players of his genius. For someone like him or GR Viswanath, or Azharuddin… they all had different options for deliveries. They could play on the on side and the off side, but then to curb that and play what is needed for the occasion is very important and that’s what he's done today," Gavaskar added.

With one away century checked, Gavaskar expects many more from Rohit to come. The former India captain also spoke of Rohit's knack of scoring big runs in T20 cricket. "He's shown to himself that he can do that. Many more on the way. He has realised I need to play more than those lovely cameos, those lovely 30s, 40s. Mind you, even in T20s, he was scoring heaps of runs, getting 70s, 80s, 100s over there as well, because he realised, he has to bat and take the responsibility and bat throughout 20 runs," Gavaskar pointed out.