Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Parthiv Patel has put his weight behind Shubman Gill after the youngster was dismissed for an 8-ball duck in the first innings of the opening Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Thursday.

Gill got an innocuous delivery down the leg side from Hasan Mahmud but unfortunately got an edge to wicket-keeper Litton Das. 

“I think he was unlucky. When you get out down the leg side, it is a bit of an instinctive shot. His game plan is to stay ahead of the popping crease. He stays almost half ahead of the popping crease,” Parthiv Patel said on Jio Cinema during the Lunch Break on Day 1.”

“He tries to negotiate that swing or seam, which a bowler is getting. But in cricket we say there are two unluckiest dismissals. One is to get run out at the non striker and or or you get out down the legside and caught behind and that’s exactly what happened with Shubman Gill,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gill scored 452 runs in five Test matches against England at an average of 56.50 and finished as the second-highest run-getter.

Before the opening Test against the Tigers, Gill scored 1492 runs in 25 Test matches at an average of 35.52, including four centuries.

The former wicket-keeper bat added Gill instinctively reacted to the ball down the leg-side but it led to his downfall.

“You don’t really leave that ball. Once you see that ball going down the leg side, your bat instinctively goes there and sometimes you know if you get a slightly better part of the bat, you may get it to a boundary. But otherwise, this time I thought Shubman was unlucky that he got a faint edge,” Parthiv Patel said in the same interaction.

India ended the opening day strongly at 339-6 after Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja scored 102 and 86 runs respectively.