Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer to be dropped from 2nd Test? Rahul Dravid takes a massive call

India head coach Rahul Dravid in his ever-defensive approach, came out in the defense of top and middle-order batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer for their respective flop shows against England in their attempt to chase down a total of 231 runs to claim victory in the 1st Test yesterday at Hyderabad.

Rahul Dravid stated that it would be too harsh to judge them after their no-show which saw India lose a Test match for the first time at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. The Indian contingent was well and truly forced to taste the sour flavor of their own medicine by a resurgent and brave English team that looked out of contention for a win in most parts of the game.

“I wouldn’t be so harsh to judge them. But it was a challenging wicket, and it’s been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batsmen to adapt. But you know, they’ve got the skill.” – Rahul Dravid said. 

Judging the game from the first 2 days, the hosts looked like they were on for another one-sided victory at home and it was also being said that the game won’t take 4 or 5 days to come out with a result. It mainly happened because of India’s decent bowling performance in the 1st innings which saw England getting restricted to just 246 in what was their first-ever implementation of Bazball cricket in India.

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Jasprit Bumrah had put up a decent effort on the Hyderabad pitch which had a bounce as well as a lot of help for the spinners. While Ashwin and Jadeja picked a hat-trick of wickets each, Axar and Bumrah collected a brace each.

When it was India’s turn to bat, Yashasvi Jaiswal would put on a show in the closing hours of day 1, scoring a quickfire half-century before Rohit Sharma walked out for 24 to Jack Leach. On day 2, Jaiswal was denied the chance to score a first Test ton against England by Joe Root while Shubman Gill who is appearing for India at number 3, got out cheaply for 23.

Number 4 KL Rahul smacked 85, Shreyas Iyer too remained a flop with his mediocre 35 while Bharat, Jadeja, and Axar’s effort closed off India’s innings for 436. England would then start really through Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley before Ollie Pope made his opportunity count with a brilliant 196 and helped the Three Lions to close the trail and gave India a target of 231.

Tom Hartley Finger Spin Troubled Indian Batters

When India walked out to the middle for what was supposed to be an easy chase, the England spin battery knew that they wouldn’t be spared by the Indian team as well as the media if they didn’t collect all 10 wickets on day 4 so they did.

Tom Hartley with his orthodox left-arm off-spin, broke India’s spine and registered 7 wickets of Jaiswal (15), Rohit (39), Gill (0), Axar (17), Bharat (28), Ashwin (28), and Siraj (12). The major disappointment for India was the inefficiency of batters like Iyer, Gill, and Jaiswal who have become regular features for India in red-ball cricket.

“They Are Being Picked On Merit”, Rahul Dravid Opines On India’s Selection Approach

While speaking to the media after the match Rahul Dravid was asked for his opinion on their performance and the basis of their selection to which Dravid claimed that the selectors are picking them on merit because they have scored plenty of runs in the domestic circuit.

“They’ve come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket. They are being picked on merit. Sometimes it does take time for people to adjust. They’re working really hard and there’s a lot of thought going into their batting.” – Rahul Dravid concluded.