Former India wicketkeeper batsman Parthiv Patel was not at all happy with the way Shubman Gill batted in both innings during India’s 28-run defeat in the first Test at the hands of England yesterday at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad.
Shubman Gill had scores of 23 and 0 and was sent back to the pavilion by the same player in both innings. He evidently struggled against the left-arm spin of Tom Hartley, who posted career-best figures of 7/62 in the fourth innings as India attempted to chase the target of 231.
Hartley would first set up Gill to take a lofted shot towards the mid-wicket region and the former managed to do so as the Indian batsman gave an easy catch to Ben Duckett. Before getting out, Shubman Gill hit 2 fours and looked good initially before the brain fade moment occurred.
Then in the second innings, the 24-year-old looked a mere shadow of himself as he was treated to just 2 deliveries. Tom Hartley again showed intelligence and exquisite finger-spinning and flicked one outside which Gill simply tried to defend with hard hands.
As he did so, Gill’s front-foot defensive shot went into the hands of foolish point-fielder Ollie Pope. Pope made a brilliant weight transfer to complete a difficult catch.
After that, it was just a simple chain reaction as the Indian batsmen came and went to the dressing room one by one before finally losing their first red-ball match in Hyderabad in a long time. While not all the batsmen performed well in India’s second innings with the bat, it was Shubman Gill who became the main target of criticism on social media and also from former cricketer turned pundit and Parthiv Patel became the last one.
Parthiv explained that he did not like the hesitation Gill had in the first innings where he was simply trying to stick to playing his shots and stated that this was the reason why English bowlers preferred not to bowl loose deliveries.
“The way Shubman Gill was batting, especially the approach we saw in the first innings, he was not trying to play shots at all. If you don’t try to score runs, international-level bowlers won’t give you too many loose deliveries,” said Parthiv Patel on Colors Cineplex.
“He needs to see how he can…” says Parthiv Patel ON Shubman Gill’s technique
As mentioned earlier, Shubman Gill’s defensive technique was not that good and was one of the main reasons why he went to duck in the fourth innings. Parthiv Patel also highlighted it and said that Gill needs to improve it sooner rather than later.
“If we also talk technically, he defends with extremely hard hands. He needs to see how he can work on it,” Parthiv added.
Parthiv would later totally criticize Gill for not even trying to rotate the attack.
“You will have to demonstrate your skills there. It is okay if you are not hitting fours, you should at least rotate the stroke,” Parthiv concluded.