"Rotate the strike at least" - Parthiv Patel slams Shubman Gill for fearful approach

Former India wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel was not at all happy with the way Shubman Gill batted across both innings during India’s 28-run 1st Test loss at the hands of England yesterday at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad.

Shubman Gill had scores of 23 and 0 and he was sent back to the pavilion by the same bowler in both of the innings. He evidently struggled against the left-arm finger spin of Tom Hartley, who went on to register career-best figures of 7/62 in the 4th innings when India were trying to chase down the target of 231.

Hartley would first set up Gill to play a lofted shot towards the mid-wicket region and the former was successful in doing so as the Indian batter handed an easy catch to Ben Duckett. Before getting out, Shubman Gill scored 2 fours and looked good initially before the brain-fade moment occurred.

Then in the 2nd innings, the 24-year-old looked like a mere shadow of himself as he was a guest of just 2 deliveries. Tom Hartley again showed smartness and exquisiteness in his finger spin and pitched one up outside off which Gill just tried to defend down with hard hands.

While doing so, Gill’s defensive front foot shot went to the hands of silly point fielder Ollie Pope. Pope made a brilliant weight transfer to complete a tough catch.

After that, it was just a plain chain reaction as Indian batters came and went back to the dressing room one by one before eventually losing their first-ever red-ball match in Hyderabad in a long time. While every batter didn’t perform well in India’s 2nd innings with the bat, it was Shubman Gill who became the major target of criticism on social media and as well as from former cricketer turned pundits and Parthiv Patel became the latest.

Parthiv explained that he was not fond of the hesitation Gill had in the 1st innings where he was just trying to restrict himself from playing his shots and claimed that it was the reason why English bowlers preferred not to bowl loose deliveries.

“The way Shubman Gill was batting, especially the approach we saw in the first innings, he wasn’t trying to play shots at all. If you don’t try to score runs, international-level bowlers won’t give you too many loose deliveries,” Parthiv Patel said on Colors Cineplex. 

“He Needs To See How He Can..”, Parthiv Patel Opines ON Shubman Gill’s Technique

As mentioned above, Shubman Gill’s defensive technique was not that good and it was a major reason why he departed for a duck in the 4th innings. It was highlighted by Parthiv Patel as well and he said that Gill needs to improve it sooner rather than later. 

“If we talk technically as well, he defends with extremely hard hands. He needs to see how he can work on that,” Parthiv added. 

Parthiv would then totally bash Gill for not even trying to rotate the strike.

“You will have to show your skills there. Its fine if you are not hitting fours, you need to rotate the strike at least,” Parthiv concluded.