London (TIP)- When you are the captain of the Indian Test side, stringent scrutiny comes as an unavoidable byproduct of the recognition and responsibility. Not that Shubman Gill was very far away from the spotlight anyway but his elevation as India‘s Test captain amplified its intensity to levels he might have never imagined, let alone experienced it. As far as batting is concerned, the leadership responsibility has done wonders. The captaincy, one would have to say, is still a work in progress. But then again, he is just 25. There is another thing that is not yet clear: What brand will Gill’s leadership be associated with? Is he a calm and cool character like MS Dhoni? Or does he believe in Virat Kohli‘s motto of fighting fire with fire and coming out on top? Then there is the laid-back yet intense style of Rohit Sharma.
So far, it has been a mixed bag. By nature, Gill appears to be closer to the Dhoni bracket but the Day 3 events at Lord’s say that he has a lot of fire within him, too. But it’s one thing to pick up a fight with the opposition and completely another to handle it when you get it back.
While Gill excelled at showing his ultra-aggressive style to Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, he was not natural at tackling the same when it was England’s turn to hound him on Day 4. That is where the difference between him and Virat Kohli lies, feels former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar.
“The thing with Virat Kohli was that he would get even more fired up and become a better batter [if things got nasty]. What disappointed me with Shubman Gill and that is why I was wondering, where is Shubman Gill heading? Because that seemed like it didn’t have the right effect on Shubman Gill, the batter,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo Match Day.
Manjrekar, a part of the broadcasting team, cited the stump microphone chatter to claim that India captain Shubman Gill was subjected to ‘personal attacks’ when he came out to bat in India’s second innings at Lord’s. He also added that Gill did not handle it well, as he was tentative in his short stay in the middle.
“He came out looking very tentative and, you know, these days we are privy to the stump mic and we could hear the things being said and there were some personal attacks made. This could be a new experience for Shubman Gill because these days, as you can see, you know, with Indian players, there’s mostly a friendly reception from a lot of foreign teams. So this was new territory. And he looked tentative and wasn’t up for it,” he added.
Gill arrived at Lord’s with close to 600 runs to his name that included two centuries and a record-breaking 269. The conditions were much difficult than the ones he faced in Leeds and Birmingham. In the second innings, the ball was hard and new, compared to the old and soft ones that he had encountered.
Gill missed a full toss outside the off stump right at the start of the innings. And although he survived a caught behind dismissal by using DRS, he was out lbw after he missed an in-dipper from Brydon Carse during India’s 193-run chase. The visitors misfired despite a stubborn act from Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. India succumbed to a 22-run defeat and trails England 1-2 in the five-match series.
“We saw it pan out in the way he batted. Because these were deliveries, good deliveries, but he’s negotiated beautifully through his marathon run as a batter through the series. And suddenly he was missing those balls. There was a review situation as well. Next ball, there was a leg before. Going through Shubman Gill’s defence has been hard work. He has hardly missed a ball. The control percentage has been brilliant. And suddenly, in about nine deliveries [in the second innings], he’s missed four. I have no doubt that there is a connection there,” Manjrekar said.
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