The walls are getting closer to the position of Shubman Gill in the Test team. He hasn’t been able to click well in his new role at number 3, which was given to him last year. In 9 innings at number 3, he averages 23 with a highest score of 47.
His latest dismissal caused a spark of criticism among fans. Shubman Gill struggled to counter the England spinners – debutant Tom Hartley, part-time off-spinner Joe Root, and left-armer Jack Leach – in the first innings of the ongoing Hyderabad Test.
While Yashasvi Jaiswal smoked the English spinners to boundaries for fun and then KL Rahul looked confident right from the onset of his innings, Shubman Gill was scratchy throughout his knock of 23 runs in 66 balls. It ended with an in-between shot – neither a proper slog over the mid-wicket fielder nor he was able to keep in on the ground – off Hartley, giving the debutant his maiden Test wicket.
Gill already had been given a reprieve when he looked to launch Root for a six, and didn’t cleanly hit his shot, but Ben Stokes at long-off didn’t see the ball and remained meters away from where it landed. The 24-year-old India batsman seemed to be lacking confidence and clarity as to what would be his approach. He defended a lot, pushing the bat outside his body, and then a sudden rush of blood, he aimed for the boundary, not checking whether it was a bad ball or not.
His struggle-filled knock finally came to an end when he chipped a full ball on the stumps from Hartley straight to Ben Duckett at mid-wicket. This led to his trolling on a large scale on social media.
Shubman Gill got trolled for throwing away his wicket in first innings in the first Test against England:
Gill is likely to be retained for the second Test, but he will need to produce a substantial innings, otherwise he will be benched when Kohli returns.
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