'Once Virat Kohli, KL Rahul return...' - Pragyan Ojha reveals why Shubman Gill failed in 2nd Test

Former India National Cricket Team spin bowler Pragyan Ojha has possibly explained the reason behind the poor shot selection by the young top-order batsman Shubman Gill that led to his dismissal in the second Test match of the two-match series against the Ben Stokes-led England National Cricket Team at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Friday, February 2.

Shubman Gill continued his poor form in Test cricket in the series against Ben Stokes & Co. He came to bat in the 18th over after the dismissal of skipper Rohit Sharma on Day 1. The 24-year-old looked decent in the middle and played some good strokes.

He was involved in a good 49-run partnership in 68 balls with Yashasvi Jaiswal before his dismissal, courtesy of a poor shot. On the 5th ball of the 29th over, Shubman Gill edged a James Anderson delivery into the hands of wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who made no mistakes behind the stumps.

Gill was back in the dugout after contributing 34 runs off 46 balls and his innings consisted of 5 boundaries. The youngster was heading into the series with poor form under his belt and had the best opportunity to play a big innings on Day 1 of the Vizag Test as the pitch wasn’t difficult to bat on.

However, Gill failed to convert his good start into a big score and received a lot of criticism for his failure, with many fans and experts calling for his removal from the playing XI. The England batting great Kevin Pietersen was the exception as he came out in support of the batter and urged everyone to back the youngster.

Meanwhile, Pragyan Ojha spoke about Gill’s dismissal on Colors Cineplex. He opined that the youngster would be disappointed with himself for not converting his start into a big score. The ex-India spinner also opined that the fear of failure as well as the pressure of keeping his place in the playing XI were the factors behind his poor shot selection.

“I feel he would be extremely disappointed because he got a start and couldn’t convert it into a big score. The ball he played, you probably don’t see people playing like that in Test cricket. His footwork was going fine, he was reading the game well and was getting singles as well.”

“It’s not that he wasn’t able to rotate. It might be the pressure he would have been feeling while coming into the game because you know once Virat (Kohli) comes and KL (Rahul) becomes available, the attention will go towards them,” Ojha said.

Parthiv Patel shares his take on Shubman Gill

Former India National Cricket Team wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel also shared his views on Shubman Gill and stated that the batter started his innings differently. He added that Gill looked positive in the middle and played well against left-arm spin bowler Tom Hartley, who broke the back of the Indian team in the first Test in Hyderabad.

“It was a different type of start for sure. In the last Test match, he allowed the bowlers to bowl at one spot. Here, he had an advantage for sure because he got an off-spinner in front of him. So you get a start as a right-handed batter as you use your feet.

“The better part was that he batted well against (Tom) Hartley as well. We saw strike rotation and positivity in footwork. He was slightly lucky against Anderson for sure but his mindset was positive. I feel he would be disappointed for sure because he had scored 30 runs,” Patel stated.

Coming back to the second Test match, India finished Day 1 at 336/6 in 93 overs, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravichandran Ashwin unbeaten out in the middle. Jaiswal played a magnificent innings for the side and slammed an outstanding 179 runs off 257 balls, with 17 fours and 5 sixes.