NEW DELHI: Former cricketers and experts have touted Shubman Gill as the next big thing ever since he announced his arrival on the international scene. But a string of promising starts lately that he hasn’t been able to convert into big innings has probably left India’s chief coach frustrated, feels former England spinner Monty Panesar.
Gill, who averages 35.76 for his 1860 runs across 57 innings in 31 Tests, was dropped from the Melbourne Test for off-spin all-rounder Washington Sundar. Though Sundar did play his part with the bat scoring 50 in a 127-run partnership with centurion Nitish Reddy (114), the move to drop Gill and move KL Rahul to No. 3 so that Rohit can return as opener didn’t help sort India’s batting woes.
India’s first-innings total of 369 in Melbourne was only made possible by the knocks played by all-rounders Reddy and Sundar while the specialist batters, barring Yashasvi Jaiswal, failed once again. In the second innings, India could muster only 155.
Chasing 340 to win, India’s last 7 wickets fell for just 34 runs despite Jaiswal following up his 82 in the first innings with 84 in the second.
Will that mean Gill returning to the top order for the last Test in Sydney, which India need to win to make it 2-2 and retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy?
“Gill hasn’t performed like he needs to as a number three. I think he gets (good) starts and then gets out,” said Panesar talking to Timesofindia.com.
“I think he is promising, but hasn’t really kicked…averages like 36 (in Tests). To be honest, that needs to be like 45 (with) the talent that he has.”
Gill has featured in just two of the four Tests played so far in this Border Gavaskar Trophy. He missed the first Test in Perth with a thumb fracture and was dropped for the fourth in Melbourne. In between, his three innings brought him just 60 runs with knocks of 31, 28 and 1.
He got off to good starts in the pink-ball Test at Adelaide but failed to make it count.
“Sometimes he gets a little bit lazy or lethargic with his footwork, just gets out when he makes a good start,” Panesar analysed. “India are in a nice position and then he just gets out. I think Gambhir is probably frustrated with that thing. Enough’s enough,” felt Panesar.
He added that getting dropped from the Melbourne Test should work as a “wake-up call” for Gill.
“He’s a better player than that. He shouldn’t be averaging just 36 in Test cricket. He’s had a lot of chances and he’s getting a little bit complacent, you know, thinking that ‘Oh, I have the talent, I’ll just keep playing, I’ll keep getting better’.”, the former left-arm spinner said.
Interestingly, Rohit was asked how he views the situation with the 25-year-old Gill, especially after India’s big 284-run defeat in Melbourne.
“I had a chat with him…and the chat was clearly (that) he was not dropped. We just wanted to have that extra bit of cushion in the bowling and hence we opted for an allrounder (Sundar), which would not weaken our batting lineup. Compromising a batter for a bowler was not something that I wanted to do,” said Rohit.
“With him, there was never a doubt that he was not batting well or he was not scoring runs or anything like that. It was just to get that combination where we can cover both bases – batting and bowling. We opted for that option, of course,” the skipper added.
The fifth and final Test in Sydney begins on January 3.