"Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill have not scored big runs, but..." - Irfan Pathan backs struggling batters

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan who is mostly seen as a commentator and expert analyst, feels that the Rahul Dravid-led management should be giving more time to top and middle-order batters Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer after the duo flopped in India’s 28-run 1st Test loss against England in Hyderabad.

Irfan Pathan has claimed that Gill and Iyer still have a lot to contribute to the Indian team and agreed to Rahul Dravid’s point of not judging them so early into the series. While Gill had scores of 23 and 0 across innings, Iyer scored 35 and 13.

Their batting performance in the 1st innings can be spared due to the superb knocks played by Yashasi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja but their 2nd innings outing cannot be spared given the situation India found themselves in while trying to chase down a total of 231.

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The target would have sounded easy to the batters but the English bowlers made life difficult for them, especially the debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley who picked up a 7-wicket haul and registered 9 wickets in total. He had found the support of Jack Leach and Joe Root who accounted for a wicket each while Ben Stokes’ run out of Jadeja paved the way for England to produce a sensational comeback after being behind in the initial stages.

India had taken a lead of 190 but their whole effort was discarded by Ollie Pope who smacked 196 runs himself and stood at the crease for 373 minutes from day 3 until day 4’s first session. He systematically destroyed the well-experienced spin trio of Jadeja, Ashwin, and Axar and was also adjudged as man of the match.

“They Have Experience”, Irfan Pathan Backs The Abilities of Gill And Iyer

While the bowling front does need a few improvements, the batting order which is now without KL Rahul for the 2nd Test, needs to find a way out as well. And for that, Irfan Pathan feels that Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer both have to be a part of the plan.

“If the situation is 1-0 or 2-1, or you know you can’t lose the series from here then you can try the young players. I want India to back Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer for some more matches. Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill have not scored big runs in recent times but they have the experience which helps the team in crunch situations. I will continue to back them because India need 3-4 experienced players in the line-up,” Irfan Pathan told reporters at Asian Legends League launch.

Irfan Pathan further made a claim about Virat Kohli’s absence and considers that as the biggest setback for India which kept them away from clinching the victory in Hyderabad.

“The biggest setback is that India don’t have Virat Kohli. For that matter, there are several experienced players who are not available at the moment due to some reasons.” – Irfan concluded.

Meanwhile, the 2nd Test starts on February 2nd in Vishakhapatnam and we might see as many as 2-3 new faces in the team, and either of Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, and Saurabh Kumar will earn their debut Test cap.