Published: Jul 18, 2025, 12:53 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 18, 2025, 12:53 PM (IST)
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Shubman Gill’s aggression toward Zak Crawley on the third day of Lord’s Test affected the Indian skipper’s batting. While speaking on ESPNcricinfo Match Day, Manjrekar pointed out this passage of play invoked one of India’s former captains.
“The thing with Virat Kohli was that he would get even more fired up and become a better batter [if things got nasty],” Manjrekar said.
“What disappointed me with Shubman Gill and that is why I was wondering, where is Shubman Gill heading? Because that seemed like it didn’t have the right effect on Shubman Gill the batter,”he said.
“He came out looking very tentative and, you know, these days we are privy to the stump mic and we could hear the things being said and there were some personal attacks made. This could be a new experience for Shubman Gill because these days, as you can see, you know, with Indian players, there’s mostly friendly reception from a lot of foreign teams. So this was new territory. And he looked tentative and wasn’t up for it.” he added.
Shubman Gill walked into the third Test at Lord’s in outstanding form, having smashed 485 runs in the first two matches. In four innings, he had hit three hundreds and converted one into a career-best 269. Compared to the rest of the series, the batting conditions in the third Test were a little more challenging. In the second inning, he was up against a hard new ball. On previous occasions, he had the advantage of beginning against a softer, older ball that wasn’t doing much. All of that was made worse by the attention he attracted, and he fell cheaply.
“We saw it pan out in the way he batted,” Manjrekar said. “Because these were deliveries, good deliveries, but he’s negotiated beautifully through his marathon run as a batter through the series. And suddenly he was missing those balls. There was a review situation as well.” Manjrekar continued.
“Next ball, there was a leg before. Going through Shubman Gill’s defence has been hard work. He has hardly missed a ball. The control percentage has been brilliant. And suddenly, in about nine deliveries [in the second innings], he’s missed four. I have no doubt that there is a connection there,” he further explained.
“And just to extend on that point, if Shubman Gill had that kind of a fiery side to him, we would have seen it a little earlier. You don’t have to show it when you’re captain. Or did he show it because he’s got this confidence now that he’s won a Test match and he’s got so many runs? Because with Virat Kohli, you could see that he was ready for a scrap. He was always waiting to get in the thick of things. Even when he wasn’t a captain, you could see him coming in there. So that was a trait that we’d seen even before he was captain. With Shubman Gill, I’ve never seen it before.” he said.
According to Sanjay Manjrekar, Shubman Gill has already “surpassed everyone’s expectations,” and feels the 25-year-old captain has the freedom to take his time in establishing his leadership style.
