Former Indian national cricket team bowler Pragyan Ojha has possibly explained the reason behind young top-order batsman Shubman Gill’s poor shot selection that led to his dismissal in the second Test match of the two-game series against the team led by Ben Stokes. England National Cricket Team at Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Friday, February 2.
Shubman Gill continued his poor form in Test cricket in the series against Ben Stokes & Co. He came to bat in the 18th over after captain Rohit Sharma’s dismissal on Day 1. The 24-year-old looked decent in the middle and played some good hits.
He was involved in a fine partnership of 49 runs off 68 balls with Yashasvi Jaiswal before his dismissal, courtesy of a poor shot. On the fifth ball of the 29th over, Shubman Gill edged a James Anderson delivery into the hands of wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who made no mistake behind the stumps.
Gill was back in the dugout after contributing 34 runs off 46 balls and his innings consisted of 5 boundaries. The youngster was heading into the series with poor form under his belt and had the best chance of playing a big innings on Day 1 of the Vizag Test as the fielding was not difficult to bat at.
However, Gill failed to convert his good start into a big score and received a lot of criticism for his failure, with many fans and pundits calling for his removal from the playing XI. England’s great batsman Kevin Pietersen was the exception as he backed the batsman and urged everyone to back the youngster.
Meanwhile, Pragyan Ojha spoke about Gill’s dismissal at Colors Cineplex. He opined that the youngster would feel disappointed in himself for not turning his start into a great result. The former India player also opined that fear of failure and the pressure of maintaining his place in the XI were the factors behind his poor shot selection.
“I feel like he would be very disappointed because he had an outing and couldn’t turn it into a great result. The ball he played, you probably don’t see people playing like that in Test cricket. His footwork was going well, he was reading the game well and he was also getting singles.”
“It’s not that I couldn’t rotate. It could be the pressure I would have felt coming into the game because you know that once Virat (Kohli) comes and KL (Rahul) is available, the attention will turn to them,” Ojha said.
Parthiv Patel shares his opinion on Shubman Gill
Former Indian national cricket team batsman and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel also shared his views on Shubman Gill and stated that the batsman started his innings differently. He added that Gill looked positive in the middle and played well against left-arm bowler Tom Hartley, who broke the Indian team’s back in the first Test in Hyderabad.
“It was certainly a different start. In the last Test match, he allowed players to bowl at one spot. Here he had a sure advantage because he had a spinner in front of him. So you start as a right-handed hitter while using your feet.
“The best part was he hit well against (Tom) Hartley too. We saw punch rotation and positivity in footwork. He probably had a little luck against Anderson, but his mentality was positive. I feel like he would surely be disappointed because he had scored 30 runs,” Patel stated.
Coming back to the second Test match, India finished Day 1 on 336/6 in 93 overs, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravichandran Ashwin unbeaten in the middle. Jaiswal played a magnificent innings for the team and scored an outstanding 179 runs off 257 balls, with 17 fours. and 5 sixes.