Cricket News

India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar gives reason for Shubhman Gill’s failure in Test Cricket

Sunil Gavaskar's deciphers the reason for Shubman Gill's below performance in test cricket.

Dec 30, 2023 2:15 pm

Shubman Gill is touted as the Prince of Indian cricket and the one to carry forward the legacy of Indian cricket maestro Virat Kohli in all three formats. Since making his debut in 2019, Gill has impressed almost everyone with his elegant strokeplay and strong temperament. In 2023, he also hit a double century and century in ODIs and T20Is respectively to make his mark in the international arena.

Although Shubman Gill’s white ball record has been impressive, his recent woes in the red ball format, especially in SENA countries, have put a question mark on his place in his Indian Test side. While Gill looks quite comfortable playing the short ball, his major problem in the test arena has been the swinging ball.

Shubman Gill averages a decent 39.25 on his home turf, but his average in SENA countries has been 25.43, which can be termed as below average given the standards set by the Indian batting pedigree in the past. His recent failure against South Africa in the first Test at Centurion has exposed his weakness against seam and swing, which was well exploited by South African pacers Nandre Burger and Marco Jansen.

Sunil Gavaskar decoded the reason for Gill’s inconsistency in Test format

Examining Shubman Gill’s recent struggles with the bat, cricket icon Sunil Gavaskar provided some invaluable analysis of Gill’s batting. Gavaskar suggested that Gill’s aggressive style might be counterproductive but also stated the importance of adapting his approach to suit the nuances of red-ball cricket.

Emphasizing the significant disparity between the red and white balls, Gavaskar pointed out the increased swing tendency of the former when amalgamated with Gill’s aggressive batting results in his early dismissals.

Gavaskar said, “I feel Shubman Gill is being overly aggressive. He has to keep the difference between red ball and white ball in mind while playing shots. The red ball swings a bit more than the white ball. He played some good shots in the second innings. It seemed he would go on to play a long innings, but he made the mistake of playing across the line. He is the type of player who works on his mistakes, so I’m hopeful.”