India’s wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik feels Shubman Gill is getting under the pump after his poor run in Test cricket in the recent past. Gill has scored 1040 runs in 20 Test matches at an average of 30.59 and thus has failed to live up to the lofty expectations.

Gill could only score 74 runs at an average of 18.50 in the two Test matches against South Africa and thus he will look to turn the tables in the ongoing Test series against England. The youngster will bat at number three against the visitors and he will look to deliver the goods for the hosts.

Gill was in terrific form in ODI cricket in 2023, scoring 1584 runs and he will look to replicate the same success in the ongoing season.

Meanwhile, Gill was dismissed on 23 in the first innings of the opening Test by debutant Tom Hartley after playing a poor shot.

Dinesh Karthik said while talking to Cricbuzz, “You can see pressure has gone to Shubman Gill. He knows if he fails a couple of times, his career, for the moment, could be on the line. So, you could see that reluctance.”

On the other hand, Karthik questioned Ben Stokes’ captaincy on the opening day. Stokes persisted with debutant Tom Hartley despite the left-arm orthodox spinner being taken to the cleaners by Yashasvi Jaiswal.

“After (Tom Hartley’s) three overs, I think 99 percent of the captains would have taken him off. I also think it is a huge learning curve for Ben Stokes as well. He is playing and captaining a little bit like how he captained (against) the Pakistan team. Two things are different than the Pakistan team: the calibre of batting and the kind of pitches that they played on.”

“They played on flat pitches where they could score 500 at a quick pace and put Pakistan, who just played orthodox cricket and got that score in a much longer time. So, his way of setting fields was a lot more attacking, which is understandable because he had 500 runs on the board,” Karthik concluded.

India are currently 173-3 in their first innings, trailing by 73 runs.