Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said Shubman Gill’s lack of confidence contributed to his dismissal in Team India’s second innings of the first Test against England in Hyderabad. England set a 231-run target for India on the fourth day of the series opener on Sunday, January 28. Gill failed to score as the Indian team were bundled out for 202 to lose the game by 28 runs.
Chopra said in a video shared on his YouTube channel said: “I had said India won’t be able to do this run chase if Rohit gets out and it got proven as well. Yashasvi got out. It would have been great if he had scored runs but he is a young kid, how much burden you will put on his shoulders. I was thinking that there is a possibility of him getting out on this bad pitch. Shubman Gill’s confidence is rock-bottom at the moment. Shubman Gill might have an average close to or less than 20 in his last 11 innings. The highest is not 40 and he is struggling against left-arm spin. He went with hard hands and got caught out at silly point.”
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However, Shubman Gill has scored 173 runs which came at an average of 17.30 in his last 11 Test innings. A 36-run knock in Team India’s first innings of the Cape Town Test against South Africa is his during this period. And, Aakash Chopra feels Rohit Sharma’s dismissal was the match-turning moment as well.
He again shared, “KL Rahul came and managed for some time but then Tom Hartley dismissed Rohit Sharma. In my opinion, Rohit Sharma’s dismissal was the game-changing moment for India. India then sent Axar Patel, tried to do something different. India lost Axar Patel’s wicket immediately after Tea. After that, they lost KL Rahul. Then it was just downhill. (Ravindra) Jadeja got run out. Shreyas also fell prey to Jack Leach. There was a partnership between (Srikar) Bharat and (Ravichandran) Ashwin, and it seemed like things could change.”
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Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra also added that Srikar Bharat and Ravichandran Ashwin, who added together a 57-run eighth-wicket stand, lost their wickets in contrasting ways as well.
“Both Ashwin and Bharat were playing well. Bharat scored 28 but he got a good delivery – came in, went out after pitching, and hit the stumps. It was a wicket-taking ball. Ashwin also went as soon as he (Bharat) got out. He too scored 28 runs and got out while playing a very bad shot,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
