IPL 2023: Sunil Gavaskar praises Krunal Pandya's captaincy, explains why he is 'terrific' reader of game

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IPL 2023: Sunil Gavaskar has praised Krunal Pandya for his captaincy as the 32-year-old led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to a crucial five-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Ekana Stadium on Tuesday.

The win has helped LSG topple MI to occupy the third spot in the ten-team IPL 2023 points table. LSG have their fate in their hands now and a win in their final league match will take them to the playoffs.

In the match in Lucknow, the hosts bounced back beautifully to stun the five-time champions. They first recovered from 35/3 in 6.1 overs to post 177/3 in 20 overs.

Later, MI were cruising at 90/0 in 9.3 overs before Krunal, who scored 49 off 42, held his nerves and showed exceptional leadership skills to pull back things in his side's favour.

His decision to bring in Yash Thakur and Mohsin Khan despite their expensive overs worked as the pacers shared three wickets between them from overs 10 to 18. Mohsin also defend 11 runs in the last over.

Krunal himself changed his line beautifully as per the strength and weakness of the opposition batters, giving away just 27 runs in four overs.

"Whatever I have seen of Krunal Pandya, he is a terrific reader of the game. Before he was the captain, he used to play for Mumbai Indians, even there his reading of the game, of the situation is great.

"He bowls a different sort of line depending on the batters' strength so that is all about being aware and also about the fact that he reads the opponents well, he reads his own game well," Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the match.

Krunal's brother Hardik Pandya has already led his team Gujarat Titans (GT) to the IPL 2023 playoffs. LSG will play their last league match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday. A win will take them to their second consecutive playoffs.