Shubman Gill spoke about his premature dismissal after a promising half-century on Day 1 of the first Test against New Zealand on November 25, stating he was not expecting the ball that got him to reverse so early.
Gill was dismissed by Kiwi pacer Kyle Jamieson on the last ball of the 30th over of the Indian first-innings in Kanpur. The delivery initially shaped up to go away from the right-hander but then tailed back in late to castle the stumps.
The Indian batter had reached the score of 52 after having played out a testing morning session and was looking good for so much more. But Jamieson’s brilliance with the ball meant that he had to take the long walk back to the pavilion.
“I think he (Jamieson) bowled pretty well today especially in the first spell, he bowled pretty good areas to me and after lunch, the whole spell that he bowled was top notch,”
“Sometimes, it’s difficult to start knowing when it’s reverse-swinging and especially after coming back from lunch, I didn’t expect the ball to reverse that early in the game,”
Gill said at the post-day press conference, as quoted by PTI.
Gill got his approach spot on in the first session, where he focused on playing out the two pacers, including Tim Southee, and looked to put the pressure on the Kiwi spinners Ajaz Patel and Will Somerville.
At one stage, when Patel was beginning to stitch together a string of dot balls, Gill danced down the track and hit him over straight for a six. That stroke disturbed Ajaz’s rhythm and forced him to ask for the mid-on to be back, which gave India quite a few easy singles.
Gill, who is considered a better player of pace than spin, said playing stalwarts Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the nets offer him ideal preparation to tackle any spinner in the world in a game scenario.
“If you are already playing two of the best spinners in nets, especially in India, it does help, because if you try to negotiate them, you have a much better chance of going in the middle of the match and trying to handle those crucial periods of time,”
he said.
The untimely dismissal aside, Gill would have been pleased to make a comeback to the Test side with an encouraging half-century, having missed out on the series in the UK with an injury and, before that, enduring a poor run at home against England following an incredible debut tour of Australia.
Gill’s frequent frontfoot dismissals against pacers have raised a doubt in certain corners about his technical acumen, which even prompted the team management to test him in the middle-order for the New Zealand series.
Reportedly at least, that was India’s initial plan for the two games in Kanpur and Mumbai ahead of the tour of South Africa until KL Rahul got injured and Gill had to move back to the top of the order.
Personally, though, he said he is willing to bat wherever the team management asks him to and that his struggles in previous months had less to do with technical failings and only required a mental adjustment.
“I have opened for (my) state team, India A in first-class matches, in other countries, I have batted in middle order as well, it’s more on the mental side rather than technique,”
said the prodigious young batting talent, adding that the presence of head coach Rahul Dravid has also helped him.
