Sunil Gavaskar minced no words in coming down heavily on India batter Shubman Gill for the way he got out in the first Test against England at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday. After doing all the hard work to bat till stumps on the first day and getting through the difficult first hour on Day 2Gill threw away his wicket. He also became the maiden Test wicket for debutant England spinner Tom Hartley.
In the fifth ball of the 35th over, Hartley tossed one up on Gill’s pads. The right-hander played a wafty slap, which was neither an attempt to go over the top nor a convincing way of turning the strike over. The result was inevitable. He was out caught at mid-wicket. After playing 66 balls and scoring 23 runs with the slowest strike rate among all batters that have gone past the 20-run mark in this Test, Gill gift-wrapped his wicket to England.
“What kind of a shot was he looking to play? One can understand if he was looking to play it in the air but it was just a badly executed on-drive. He did all the hard work and then played a shot like that,” said Gavaskar in commentary.
A growing problem for Shubman Gill
In his short Test career, this has slowly but surely become a big issue for Gill. Apart from a couple of half-centuries including that special 91 at Brisbane and two centuries against Bangladesh and Australia, Gill doesn’t have much to show for in this format. The most disappointing factor has been the way he has thrown away starts.
In his 37 innings, there have been 10 occasions when Gill has crossed the 25-mark without reaching a half-century. For a batter of his talent, that is worrisome. And like on Friday, most of the times, he brings about his own downfall. Even during India’s last series in South Africa, Gill missed a straight delivery from Marco Jansen after looking solid for 26 in the second innings in Centurion. In the next Test, he couldn’t help but throw his hands at a Nandre Burger delivery after scoring 36.
Getting through the 20s and 30s appears to be the biggest issue for Gill at the moment. A Test average of only 20 after 20 matches is the biggest proof of that.
Coming back to the India-England match, Resuming the day at 119/1, India ended the first session at 222/3. With a strong 63-run partnership for the fourth wicket, KL Rahul (55*) and Shreyas Iyer (34*) made sure India stayed in front in the series opener. The hosts now need only 24 runs to match England’s first innings total of 246.
England got off to a pretty good start on Day 2, getting the big wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (80) in the second delivery of the day. The wicket of Gill also came at the right time but since then, Rahul and Iyer made sure there were no more hiccups. Rahul, in particular, was very good against the spinners, rotating the strike at will.
There were some questionable tactics from England captain Ben Stokes. He kept bowling Hartley from one end despite the left-arm spinner leaking runs and not creating enough chances.
