Former Indian spinner and cricket commentator Pragyan Ojha expressed disappointment that Shubman Gill couldn't capitalize on his promising start during India's first innings in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.
On the opening day of the ongoing second Test against England, Gill had a great start, scoring 34 runs with five boundaries and contributing to a 49-run partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal for the second wicket.
However, James Anderson managed to dismiss the young batter, handing a second blow to Team India on Day 1. Anderson prompted Gill to play an erroneous shot, resulting in a delicate edge straight into the hands of wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.
Pragyan Ojha was quoted as saying by Colors Cineplex: “I feel he would be extremely disappointed because he got a start and couldn't convert it into a big score. The ball he played; you probably don't see people playing like that in Test cricket. His footwork was going fine, he was reading the game well and was getting singles as well.”
Ojha felt that Gill might have been feeling pressure, and that’s why he could not capitalize on his good starts, as he has already gone through a rough patch in tests in the last 6 months.
He signed off by saying, “It's not that he wasn't able to rotate. It might be the pressure he would have been feeling while coming into the game because you know once Virat (Kohli) comes and KL (Rahul) becomes available, the attention will go towards them.”
Notably, Gill has scored 207 runs at an average of 18.81 with a top score of 36 to his name in his last 7 Test matches for India, and he hasn’t scored a fifty in his last 12 Test innings.
