In a position previously dominated by giants with rock-solid technique and a freaky ability to absorb pressure, the talented but often-flashy Gill has — over the past year or so — come perilously close to being labelled a misfit.
In a way, the management’s pat-on-the back approach to Gill’s voluntary decision to take up the spot vacated by Cheteshwar Pujara was India’s own ‘Bazball’ moment.
The team sorely needed someone at that spot to take the game forward instead of playing catch-up.
Unexpectedly, after a run of failures, Gill knew the opposition had caught up with him. Instead of trying to blaze his way out of the morass, or scurry back to the warm comforts of white-ball glory, Gill has taken the bit between his teeth and sweated it out for endless hours in the nets. He has traversed the hard path of playing the waiting game and rotating strike. He has made tiny but difficult adjustments to muscle memory and technique. In doing so, Gill has emerged forged in fire and discovered new mettle within himself.
Some luck too has followed. As the caravan moves to the JSCA Stadium here, Gill cannot say for certain that he has made the No. 3 spot his own, but at least the road ahead looks promising.
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“It wasn’t that I had never done it before. I batted at No. 3 and No. 4 in some of the Ranji matches and for India ‘A’. It’s different when you’re opening the innings. You don’t get time to think. You are the one setting the tone. At No. 3, you get a certain situation to bat in. There might be a couple of early wickets. You’re playing accordingly,” Gill reminded everyone on Wednesday
Since July 2023, his string of scores at No. 3 reads 6, 10, 29*, 2, 26, 36, 10, 23, 0, 34, 104, 0 and 91. It’s been a slippery crawl up the ladder. In his first 14 innings at No. 3 — he also batted once at that spot in Dec 2021 against New Zealand — Gill has 418 runs at an average of 32.15.
In contrast, Cheteshwar Pujara in his first 14 innings at No. 3 had aggregated 942 at 78.5, including two double tons apart from two centuries. It’s chalk and cheese, but Gill believes he is close to cracking the mental approach.
“Regarding my own expectations, I was very disappointed. What I felt in Vizag (the pressure) was something different from what I had felt in my previous matches playing for India. In Rajkot the situation was very different. It was a more calm and composed innings.
“The difference between the great players and the average player is how you can forget whatever happened in the past — good or bad — and just focus on the ball. “You definitely have some expectations from yourself. But it’s all about being able to forget that and move from it as quickly as possible and be ready for the next ball,” he said.
Gill, the ‘outsider’ at No. 3, now knows there will be times when he has to adapt to survive, maybe even borrow some fine lines from the more traditional theatre of Test cricket, in order to take the game forward. He believes he is capable of it. And when his turn comes to bat in Ranchi, Gill will continue to find his feet.