IND vs ENG: Shubman Gill Achieves Unwanted Record, Becomes Third Indian Batter In Test History To Do THIS

Shubman Gill is going through a big slump in international cricket as runs are hard to come by for the dashing opener. He got out to low scores in the first Test and in the first innings of the 2nd Test, he got out after scoring 34. He got the start and was looking set but perished trying to hit the ball through covers off James Anderson. Gill was angry at himself as he walked back to the dressing room as he teasted the ball around the off stump line and ended up edging it to keeper Chris Woakes. 

Before this series, Gill did poorly in South Africa as well. In fact in the last ten innings, he has scored less than 200 runs. This series of flop shows puts him under more pressure and he needs to be mentally strong and free of failures to come out of it. 

Not to forget, after getting out in he first innings of Vizag Test, Shubman has got for himself an unwanted record. Shubman, now, is one of only three Indian batters in Test history to bat more than 30 times in the top 4 and average less than 30. The other two are Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Anshuman Gaekwad.

It will take some doing from Shubman to come out of this poor run but he is lucky to be sharing dressing room with the likes of Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who have gone through various lows in their career to come out of it eventually. 

In the first Test, Shubman was playing with hard hands and attacked spinners on the front foot. That led to his fall. In this Test, he changed the approach and had softened his grip yet when Anderson came on to bowl, he again tried to up the ante and the old, hard grip was back. 

Shubman is just starting out in Tests and needs support. He is young and he is still learning. The good thing is that in Indian cricket there are several legends who are just a phone call away. Shubman is lucky in a sense that he is certain to get a longer rope with the Indian team while there will be criticism outside of favouristism.

Shubman still has one more innings to go in this Test. If he fails in the second innings as well, it may lead to his sacking from the playing 11. But one thing is for sure that he will not be dropped from the squad straightaway.