India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour has said they won’t judge Shubman Gill on the basis of one innings. Gill, who was given his preferred slot of No. 3 in the first Test match against the West Indies at Dominica, failed to grab his chance as he was dismissed after scoring only six runs.
In fact, Gill had returned with scores of 13 and 18 in the World Test Championship final against Australia, which India lost by a huge margin of 209 runs. Gill has been in solid form in 2023 in all three forms of the game and he would want to make the number three position his own in the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara.
In his young Test career, Gill has scored 927 runs in 17 Test matches at an average of 31.97.
“We won’t judge him on the basis of one innings. He has a lot of time and surely he will do well for us in this position because he has the game for that. He can take his time and play, and he is a stroke-player as well who can move the game forward. Having such a batter at No.3 is extremely advantageous,” Vikram Rathour said in the press conference.
Rathour feels the team needs to be patient with Gill and he will deliver the goods in the Test format after having proved his mettle in the limited-overs versions.
“He has also made runs in Test cricket. Sometimes it might take a bit of time in a particular format, and he is taking that time, but he has that time. The potential that he has, I have no doubt that he is the future of the Indian team in batting. He will play for the Indian team for a long time, in all three formats,” Rathour added.
The former Indian batter revealed that Gill is working on his game and he is putting in the hard yards in the net sessions.
“He is taking some time but the good thing is that there is no dearth of hardwork, he is working out on things. And along with potential he also has the temperament, which makes one a big player. Again, there’s no doubt that he’ll play all three formats for a long time.”
Rathour went on to add that the number three position will suit Gill in the longest format of the game. Gill himself told head coach Rahul Dravid that he wants to bat one down in the red-ball version.
“There are three openers in the team, so one had to go to No.3. But the good thing is that it came from Shubman himself, he said ‘I’ll like to go No.3’. His reasoning is that whenever he has played first-class cricket or for India, he has played at No.3 or 4. He feels that his right position in the longer formats is that. So we were all happy with that decision. After that discussion, Rahul [Dravid] and Rohit [Sharma] decided that it would be better for him to play at No.3.”
The second Test match will be played from 20th July at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
