Shubman Gill was the toast of Indian first innings batting on day three of the ongoing fourth Test against Australia being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday, as he scored his second Test hundred and first in India.
Gill’s knock which was a sight for sore eyes put the hosts nearer to Australia’s 480 in the first innings. He finally fell for 128 runs in 235 balls with 12 fours and 1 six to his name.
After the end of the day’s play, he was in conversation with veteran Cheteshwar Pujara, with whom he added 113 runs for the second wicket. Gill said he cashed in on the big score given the more favorable conditions for the batters than in the previous three Tests.
“Honestly, I was thinking I don’t know when next I will get a wicket like this. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity by playing a bad shot. That’s what going through my mind. It feels great to be able to get a Test hundred in India. This is my first one, and to be able to get it in India which is my home ground in the IPL, is amazing,” Gill said in a video posted by BCCI.
Gill has been in a purple patch of good form recently, as he has scored two Test tons, two ODI centuries apart from a double hundred and a T20I hundred since December 2022.
Pujara then asked Gill about his choice of attack in a largely gritty knock: “You enjoy playing lofted shots but in this particular innings, you showed lot of patience, lot of temperaments. If we look at your strike rate, it was a lot higher against fast bowlers.”
“I was blocking myself against the spinners, and I can’t be doing the same against the fast bowlers as well. You have to balance it out and that was I trying to do. I was still trying to be positive, keep looking for the singles and go for a bad ball.
I was getting cramps, but that is a good thing because if you are getting cramps, you know you are doing well,” Gill said.
Then Pujara spoke about he is trying to be more aggressive in his run-making over the recent few matches.
He said: “I’m working on some of the shots, you’ve been seeing that in the net sessions. Whenever there’s a situation needed, when I need to accelerate bit more, I need to play few more shots, then I would love to do that. But today, the way our partnership was going on, you were taking on the bowlers. I didn’t have to take much risk.”
(Indian Express inputs)
