GILL INNINGS HAS ECHOES OF DRAVID AND PUJARA
The match-winning 50 in Ranchi was all the sweeter for the struggles he’s come through in the series
Ranchi, India - There was this hug. The happiest, back-slappiest hug you may have seen on a cricket field. There was an Instagram post. There were all the visual echoes. India’s No. 3, tall, slim, batting in a cap, completing an epic come-from-behind Test win with an unbeaten fourth-innings half-century.
This was Ranchi 2024, but it may have got you thinking about Adelaide 2003. Shubman Gill came into this series with all the promise in the world and an average of 30.58 after 20 Tests. He had asked for, and been given, a chance to move from the top of the order down to No. 3: Rahul Dravid’s position, Cheteshwar Pujara’s position. With India losing a number of experienced batters for injury and other reasons, he was soon to become a senior member of one of their least experienced line-ups.
Here’s how Gill’s series has gone: 23, 0, 34, 104, 0, 91, 38, 52*. That’s 342 runs at 48.85, the second-most runs by anyone on either side, and the secondbest average of anyone who’s played at least two Tests.
He’s not batted like he’s from another planet, like Yashasvi Jaiswal has. He’s not even batted like the Shubman Gill the world has known and marvelled at whenever he’s scored runs before. He’s looked vulnerable early on, particularly against England’s quicks. He’s gone through periods of struggling to rotate strike against the spinners. He’s gotten out to attacking shots that he seemed not to really commit to.
He’s among the world’s most fluent strokemakers when he gets going, but he’s seldom got into that kind of rhythm. He’s run into problems, worked on them, scored runs, and run into other problems to address. It’s not been the kind of series where one innings has unlocked his free-flowing self.
He scored a second-innings hundred in Visakhapatnam, and followed it up with his most uncertain-looking innings of the series. This was on day one in Rajkot, where he jabbed feverishly at everything with his back foot seemingly stuck on leg stump, and eventually nicked off to Mark Wood for a duck. Then, on the morning of day two, when India were still batting, he went to the nets and faced a long session of throwdowns.
It’s not clear what he worked on, but it may have been something to do with his trigger movement against pace, because he got into line so much more quickly and assuredly in the second innings - the conditions were, it has to be said, less helpful to the quicks by this stage - and seemed to put all his jabbiness behind him while scoring 91.
In the first innings in Ranchi, he made 38 before Shoaib Bashir got him lbw while defending off the front foot. Gill got a good stride forward to the ball but was struck on the front pad just about in line with off stump.
In the second, he resolved to take lbw out of the equation. He did this by doing something that comes naturally to him, but did that thing differently.
“In the first innings, the ball was not turning much, so I didn’t step out much, and the ball which I got out [to], it hit the crack and spun sharply,” Gill told the broadcaster at the end of the match. “In the second innings, I just thought I would take lbw out of the game by just stepping out.
“It’s one of those things I’ve practiced a lot, step out and play for the singles or defend, because generally when you’re stepping out you’re always looking for the big shot, but I think if you can step out and you have this game where you can step out and defend or look for the single I think it really helps on wickets like these.”