Cricket News

‘You’ve to look at the way he got out’ – Sanjay Manjrekar opines on star India batter’s slow inning against England

Indian commentator and former player Sanjay Manjrekar stated that Shubman Gill’s decision to bat slowly went against him in the first innings for India against England in the first Test match at Rajiv Gandhi International in Hyderabad.

Early on Day 2 England’s debutant spinner Tom Hartley got the wicket of Indian batter Shubman Gill. Gill scored 23 runs from 66 runs and hit two fours before getting out. Later three Indian batters scored half-centuries as KL Rahul scored 86 from 123 balls, and Yashasvi scored 80 runs before falling to Joe Root as the first wicket of Day 2. Later Ravindra Jadeja went on to score an unbeaten 81 runs. With Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja India took a lead of 175 runs at the end of Day 2.

Sanjay Manjrekar stated that Gill’s decision to ball slowly than normal ended up against him. Gill’s strike rate of 34.84 was among the slowest players for Team India.

“Shubman Gill’s decision to bat slower than the need of the hour went against him. You’ve to look at the way he got out. You got the impression when he played the shot that he was trying to break the shackles somewhat, trying to hit over the infield. It was a bit of a grind for Shubman Gill,” said Manjrekar.

Shubman Gill must start working on his backfoot

The former India batsman stated Gill needed to improve his backfoot play, claiming that the 24-year-old was attempting to defend with a very rigid bat. Gill has recently struggled for form, scoring his last half-century in the ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in November 2023.

“We’ve been talking a lot about backfoot play on turning pitches against spinners and when you look at the backfoot play of Gill, you’ll see that there’s hardly any. He’s only trying to defend with a pretty rigid bat instead of trying to manoeuvre it. This is something that I’m sure Gill will start working on. No better person than Rahul Dravid to be there with him to just encourage him to play more of the backfoot,” Manjrekar added.

India will begin Day 3 at 421 for 7, with Jadeja batting 87 runs and Axar Patel with 35 in the middle. On Day 1, the hosts cleaned England out for 246 runs, with Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin each taking up three wickets.

This is the opening test of a five-match series. India has not lost a home Test series in the last 12 years, defeating England twice during that time. Interestingly, the last team to defeat India at home was England which was led by Alastair Cook in 2012-13.