It was a great challenge for the Indian batsman to take the
one day games seriously during the early days and the attitude of the team changed
in the early '80s during the Australia tour while taking part in a triangular
tournament, former captain Sunil Gavaskar said today. 
"When India played its first one-dayers it was a great
challenge for the batsman to take the one-day games seriously. There was simply
no thought given at that time in one-day cricket."
"Though we had the greats, the Mumbai school of
batsmanship that was used to play along the ground was there. The cricketing
upbringing was not to lift the ball inch above the ground, it was a long time
before the Indian batsman could shed that away and play shots safely over the
infield, " Gavaskar said while releasing the book "One Day Cricket:
The Indian Challenge" here at the Cricket Club of India.
"Teams would make a mistake if they do not take Twenty20
seriously, it might be the saviour of one-day cricket as the way one-day format
was a saviour to Test cricket," he said.
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