Former New Zealand pace bowler Simon Doull has stated that India youngster Shubman Gill needs to stop throwing away his wickets after having good starts. He also believes Gill should convert them into big knocks. Doull also added that while Gill looks mentally sound but he has to learn to accumulate runs as well.
Shubman Gill was dismissed for the 40s in both innings of the second Test in Mumbai. In the first Test in Kanpur, he scored 52 and 1 against New Zealand as well. And, Gill has so far scored 558 runs at an average of 32.82 as well.
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He told Dinesh Karthik during a discussion on Cricbuzz: “He’s got to now start converting starts. He has got enough changes, he has played enough first-class cricket and he’s got to start producing the numbers. He needs to realize that a Test match century is hard, it won’t come along easily. The first one is probably the toughest one you will ever make. He needs to learn and figure out a way to accumulate runs. He’s got to work those ones. He can’t just be a boundary hitter. He puts the bad ball away but he needs to keep the good balls out. He’s got to learn to rotate the strike when times are tough. That is one of the key things for Shubman Gill.”
However, Shubman Gill edged Ajaz Patel to slip after scoring 44 in the first innings. In the second innings, he hit a short ball from Rachin Ravindra to short cover while he was three runs short of a fifty. Sharing his views, Dinesh Karthik also said that Gill has all the qualities to succeed at the top level.
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The wicketkeeper-batter said: “He is doing all the hard things very easily – getting a start or playing fast bowling. When the ball is turning, he has the ability to use his feet. All the prerequisites of a good batter are there. But then, he is getting out to soft shots lot of times. From the little that I have heard, he is one of those few cricketers who averaged 100 during his U-19 days. So he has the ability to get big hundreds. It is a question of putting mind over matter and moving past those landmarks slowly.”
