It has been a disappointing few months for Shubman Gill. The Indian cricket team batter has been struggling for runs in the ongoing Test series against Australia. Gill’s dismissals received a lot of criticism from the former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali who believes that the youngster is lacking “hunger for runs”. Gill failed to score big in the third Test match in Brisbane as well after he was dismissed for 1. Basit said that youngsters like Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal should not look at the struggles of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. He added that Gill needs to forget the past and concentrate more on his game.
“Jaiswal aur Gill ko yeh nahi dekhna chahiye ke Kohli bhi out ho gaya (they shouldn’t take solace from the fact that Kohli too was dismissed without scoring much). He has performed (at the highest level); Rohit Sharma has performed,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.
“You guys should be hungry about runs, which you are not unfortunate.”
“Gill ko toh bilkul hi nahi hai bhookh (Gill is not hungry at all for runs). He loves shot-making, but Test cricket is a test of everything. You need to forget the past (good or bad) performances and think about what’s ahead, which unfortunately Gill and others don’t think,” he added.
India avoided the follow-on, scoring 252 for nine when bad light forced early stumps on day 4 of the third Test against Australia on Tuesday.
Ravindra Jadeja (77) and KL Rahul (84) led India’s fightback, but once they were dismissed, Jasprit Bumrah (10) and Akash Deep (27) helped push the total forward, with Akash playing a heroic unbeaten knock of 39 off 54 balls.
India, however, still trail by 193 runs.
For Australia, skipper Pat Cummins was the most successful bowler, taking four wickets for 80 runs, while Mitchell Starc claimed three for 83. Nathan Lyon (1/54) also picked up a wicket on a day when Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the match due to injury.
Jadeja kept India’s hopes alive with a sturdy innings, sharing a 53-run stand with Nitish Kumar Reddy (16), who was dismissed by Cummins in the post-lunch session, which was curtailed by a rain interruption lasting just over an hour.
Earlier, opener KL Rahul played a crucial role in India’s fightback, contributing a solid 84 as he and Jadeja added 67 runs.
Resuming the day at 51 for 4, India lost their captain Rohit Sharma (10) early, but Rahul stood firm at the other end, bringing up his 17th Test half-century off 85 balls.
The five-match series is currently tied at 1-1.
(With PTI inputs)
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