Veteran India batter-keeper Dinesh Karthik was unimpressed by Shubman Gill’s exploits in Test cricket thus far. Shubman Gill scored 2 and 26 in the two innings of the Centurion Test.
India lost the Test by an innings and 32 runs and lost another opportunity to win a Test series in South Africa. The Indian batting and bowling proved to be very poor in the match as India made just 245 and 131 in the two innings, while the bowlers let South Africa score 405 runs.
Barring Virat Kohli and KL Rahul none of the Indian batters were at ease in front of the South African bowlers. All of them knew the weakness of the Indian batters and exploited that brilliantly. Rohit Sharma scored 5 and 0 in the two innings.
Gill fended off Nandre Burger down the leg side in the first inning before being cleaned up by Marco Jansen in the second inning with a ball that came in and broke his defense. One of the main reasons for his removal in the second innings was his back footwork.
Karthik blasted Shubman Gill for his lack of application in the first Test in Centurion. He said that after his recent knock, there will be question marks on his place in the side. Notably, Gill had willingly moved from opening the innings to no.3 spot after the BCCI selectors wanted to move on from Cheteshwar Pujara.
“Shubman Gill is the big question mark here. He has not lived up to the expectations that people have. I think even he would be aware that if you are going to average mid-30s or early-30s after having played 20 Tests, then you would consider yourself to be a bit lucky to be around. His place will definitely be under the scanner if he doesn’t have a great Test match in the next one,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
In 35 Test innings, Gill has 994 runs at a disappointing average of 31.06; his last 50+ score came in March earlier this year when he smashed 128 against Australia in Ahmedabad. Since then, in 7 innings, his highest score was an unbeaten 29 against the West Indies.
Karthik backed the inclusion of Sarfaraz Khan in the Indian Test side, saying how the talented domestic cricket has been waiting in the wings despite scoring heavily in all cricket.
“The only middle-order name that we are missing out on is Sarfaraz Khan. I have no doubt that he will make it to the squad much sooner than he thinks right now. Other than that, you do not have any other names doing the round in the middle order right now. Rajat Patidar is a very, very strong name that I think they will be looking at very soon,” Karthik added.
With the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane not part of the Indian Test team anymore, the selectors have placed their faith in the younger generation to score in the longest format.
