Shubman Gill was handed his Test cap under the most daunting of circumstances in 2020. The Indian team suffered multiple injuries to its senior players and Gill was tasked with facing the new ball at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The then 21-year-old grabbed his opportunity with both hands as he scored 45 and 35 in that match, which proved valuable for India to level the series.
His knock of 91 in the second innings of the final Test in Brisbane set the stage for the visitors to chase down 328 to clinch the series in one of the most memorable victories in recent times.
However, four years later, Gill was listless against the same opposition as a much more senior member of the team, often beaten by pace and rebounding. The right-hander managed just 93 runs in five innings batting at No. 3 in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, leading to multiple batting collapses.
Former Tamil Nadu and Chennai Super Kings batsman Subramaniam Badrinath severely criticized Gill’s failure and pointed out the specificity of his role in the batting order.
“I want you to make the ball old. Help your teammates and stand your ground even if runs don’t come. Play 100 balls, tire the players. This is what your team brings to the table. [is supposed to be]. Labuschange and McSweeney did that in a couple of games. By playing a lot of dot balls, they had actually hurt Bumrah,” Badrinath said while speaking on Star Sports Tamil.
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Badrinath also criticized Gill’s attitude on the field throughout the series saying, “You shouldn’t go there and say, oh, this is how I play. I will stand up and deliver. Four people will write about it. Whatever you can do, at that moment, try to do it.”
“In this series, I didn’t get it from Shubman. Even in the countryside he was poor. I couldn’t stay on the slip and dot. What does he contribute to the team? he added.
Gill has been criticized for his performances in late Tests as he managed to reach fifty only four times in the last 20 innings.
Badrinath also made a thinly veiled criticism of the team management saying that Gill would have been dropped from the XI if he had been from Tamil Nadu.
“If this was Tamil Nadu’s Shubman Gill, he would have been sacked.”
The 25-year-old’s overseas numbers have also seen a sharp decline as he averages a paltry 22.94 in 18 innings since 2022, with 110 against Bangladesh in December 2022 being the only notable contribution.
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