Watch: Shubman Gill takes a stunning diving catch running backwards to dismiss Ben Duckett

Shubman Gill, on Thursday (March 7), took a brilliant catch to send back Ben Duckett in the first innings of the ongoing fifth Test between India and England at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.

England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett gave the visitors another solid start with the bat to justify their captain’s decision. They shared a fifty-plus stand in the ongoing series for fifth time in nine innings before Kuldeep Yadav broke the stand to give India the much-needed breakthrough.

After the pacers as well as Ravichandran Ashwin could not give India the breakthrough, Rohit Sharma introduced Kuldeep into the attack in the 18th over and the left-arm spinner made an instant impact. After being hit for a four by both the openers, he dismissed Ben Duckett on the final ball of his first over.

The credit for the dismissal should go to Shubman Gill as well who took a sharp catch. It was a googly from the spinner and the England batter went for a big shot. However, he ended up miscuing it towards the off-side.

The ball was looking destined to fall in the no-man’s land behind Gill who was standing at the cover.  However, Gill ran backward and made a timely jump to complete a brilliant catch. Duckett departed after scoring 27.

Catching game 🔛 point! ⚡️ ⚡️

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— BCCI (@BCCI) March 7, 2024

Ben Duckett’s performance so far:

Talking about Ben Duckett’s performance in the series so far, he has scored 341 runs in 9 innings with the help of one century. The southpaw began his series with knocks of 35 and 47 in the first Test, helping England win the game by 28 runs. In the second Test, he scored 21 and 28 although his team lost the game by 106 runs.

In the third Test in Rajkot, the left-handed batsman played a brilliant knock of 153 runs but it was not enough for his team to win the game. The century was followed by knocks of 4, 11 and 15. More than his performance, Duckett has garnered attention for his comments in the series.

The left-handed batsman faced severe criticism from several quarters after saying that England should be given credit for the opposition batters’ aggressive approach with the bat. His comments came after Yashasvi Jaiswal’s quickfire hundred in the third Test.