India batter Shubman Gill has come under the scanner for another cheap dismissal in red-ball cricket. The right-hander got out after scoring only 23 in India’s first innings of the opening Test against England in Hyderabad on Friday (January 26).
Gill did a good job to bat till stumps on Day 1 and also survived the difficult first half hour on the second day. However, he threw away his wicket while attempting to swat debutant English spinner Tom Hartley through mid-wicket.
Shubman’s tentative innings and his dismissal drew sharp criticism from legends like Sunil Gavaskar and Anil Kumble. However, teammate KL Rahul spoke in defense of Gill and hailed the latter as a “top-class cricketer” after the close of play on Day 2.
“When it comes to Shubman, I think he walked in yesterday in a situation where he had to defend his way to the end of the day’s play. Sometimes when you get into a mindset like that, you might find it hard to break free. And I could sense even today that he wanted one shot just to break the shackles and just to make him feel good,” Rahul, who scored 86 in India’s first innings in Hyderabad, said during an interaction with Kevin Pietersen on JioCinema.
“Like I said, he will get better. He is a top-class cricketer. He does play spin really, really well. We’ve seen that in white-ball cricket. It’s about time that he learnt from it,” he added.
“I mean, you know, I’m sure he didn’t want to get himself into a situation where he had to go over the top or had to play a shot just to break free. But yeah, that happens to all batters. And I’m sure he’s already there thinking about what he’ll do in the next one,” he further stated.
Notably, Shubman Gill is yet to leave a big mark in the longest format of the game. Before this game, he represented India in 20 Tests, scoring 1040 runs at an average of 30.59 with two hundreds and four half-centuries.
Shubman started his Test career as an opener but after Cheteshwar Pujara’s ouster from the side, he has been batting at No. 3 for India. Gill registered scores of 2, 26, 36 and 10 in the recently held two-Test series in South Africa. Overall, he has scored 189 runs from nine Test innings at one down with the best score of 47.
