Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has slammed Shubman Gill for his poor shot selection that led to his dismissal in the first innings of the ongoing first Test between India and England at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal began the proceedings with the bat on day 2 of the series-opener. India suffered a big blow in the very first over with Joe Root dismissing Jaiswal. The onus was on the right-handed batsman and KL Rahul to steady the ship after the early blow.
They took the score past the 150-run mark before Shubman Gill played a poor shot to depart for 23. He played a poor shot against debutant Tom Hartley’s delivery that brought an end to his innings. The Punjab star could add only 10 runs to his overnight score before being dismissed.
Sunil Gavaskar criticises Shubman Gill:
As soon as Shubman Gill played the poor shot to throw away his wicket, Sunil Gavaskar expressed his displeasure. The legendary batsman, who was in the commentary box at that time, questioned the batsman’s shot selection.
“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 Sunil Gavaskar.
Talking about the game, India bowled out England for 246 on day one before finishing the day on 119 for 1. On the second day, KL Rahul’s 86-run knock led India’s charge with the bat after Jaiswal and Gill’s departure. At the time of writing this report, India were on 311 for 5 with Ravindra Jadeja and KS Bharat batting in the middle.
Meanwhile, the latest failure with the bat has further extended Gill’s poor show in Tests since he voluntarily demoted himself at no.3. He has not scored a single fifty in that position and the latest knock has only piled more pressure on him.
