'There is no Question About His Place in the Team': Zaheer Khan Comments on Shubman Gill's Lacklustre Form in Test Cricket

Much has been said about England for their momentous triumph over India in the first Test match in Hyderabad.

Tom Hartley’s match-winning seven-for and Ollie Pope’s gargantuan 196 runs were most definitely the biggest factors that influenced the game. But, therein lies another perhaps understated factor that contributed to India’s demise: their lacklustre batting.

India’s top order crumbled when they needed them the most in the second innings. Requiring to chase a commendable but not impossible target of 231 runs in one and a half days is not a big ask for the Men in Blue, yet when it mattered the most, the Indian top-order folded, caving in to the England spinners, especially Hartley, and none could muster up a respectable outing to lead the home team to victory.

One amongst the top-order batters who has been struggling in the long format especially is none other than Shubman Gill. The swashbuckling batter, who ended his 2023 as India’s top run-getter has been abysmal in his past 10 outings for India in Test cricket, failing to notch up even a single score of fifty or more.

And his batting woes continued in the first Test as well, as Gill fell in both inning for disappointing scores of 23 and 0 each.

Upon witnessing the subpar outings from Gill, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan shared his take on the type of pressure that the youngster might be under.

He stated that Gill could not get in the flow in the first innings, but the pressure did not come to him early on as well.

“So I don’t think the pressure that you are talking about came to him even in the first innings of this match because of the class of batter he is, the way in which he bats, and the flow in which we know that he bats. It has been seen that that flow did not come in the first innings. There were some good platforms there. The platform was absolutely set for batting. So what does the number-three batsman do? He takes that platform further and tries to improve that momentum,” Zaheer Khan told JioCinema.

Despite the lack of recent form, Zaheer claimed that this moment provides Gill with the best platform to grow, stating that both the fans and the management will be backing him to get back into his groove.

“There is pressure on him, but you have to deal with it. As we say in cricket, a good player only emerges from pressure. The team will see Shubman in that way, the fans will see him in that way and the management will also see him similarly. So he will be given the chance. I don’t think there should be any question about his place in the team at this time. He will play at No.3,” exclaimed Zaheer.