'If Kohli played instead of Gill, he would have scored a century': Sanjay Manjrekar makes massive claim following India's defeat at Lord's

Even though Virat Kohli announced his retirement before the commencement of the ongoing Test series against England, his name gets frequently brought up by analysts in debates. Following Shubman Gill's heated on-field argument with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett on the third day of Lord's Test, many compared his fiery attitude and aggression to Kohli.

However, Gill lacked the same attitude as Kohli when it came to batting in the match as the India captain was dismissed for the scores of 16 and 6 in the first and second innings respectively at Lord's. This came after the 25-year-old gave an extraordinary performance with the bat in the second Test at Edgbaston, recording scores of 269 and 161.

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Gill's exchange with Crawley and Duckett only fired up the England team even more and acted as motivation for them to dismiss the batter for cheap. Following the match, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar went on to claim that Kohli would have scored a century if he had batted instead of Gill at Lord's.

Manjrekar made a brutal comparison between Gill and Kohli

"If somebody wants to build a brand by saying, we are Indians, we are not less than anyone. That (The thought process) gets a lot of attention and mileage. I hope Shubman Gill wasn't doing it for that," Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

"What Virat Kohli did was second nature to him. His cricket and batting used to get enhanced by that. Shubman Gill, I'm not sure whether this (aggression) comes naturally to him. If Virat Kohli had come out to bat, he would have looked into the face of those people and got a hundred. But if you looked at Shubman Gill's body language, the man who has almost batted like Bradman, was so tentative. The way he batted in those 9 balls seemed like he had gotten a pair. That is a clear message to me that aggression may not be his natural demeanour or approach," he added.

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Meanwhile, the victory at Lord's saw England take a 2-1 lead in the series and now will have a chance to seal the series by winning the upcoming match at Old Trafford. It is very important for Shubman Gill & Co. to come out victorious in the fourth Test at Old Trafford otherwise they will slump to a series defeat even before playing the fifth and final game.