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Shubman Gill has silenced all his doubters with his incredible batting performance in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy so far. After scoring 147 runs in the first Test at Headingley, the 25-year-old exceeded all expectations and went on to play an incredible knock of 269 in the second Test in Birmingham.
Gill's knock lead India to post a gigantic total at Edgbaston
Gill's knock was the catalyst to India posting an enormous total of 587 in the first innings of the second Test. He was assisted well by the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravindra Jadeja who played fine innings of 87 and 89 respectively. After an exceptional performance from the batters, the Indian bowlers also impressed and managed to rack up three wickets in the final session of Day 2.
Following the conclusion of the day, the likes of Ravi Shastri, Naseer Hussain and Kumar Sangakkara debated whether making Gill captain was the right call especially with both Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant also available. Hussain warned the young skipper to not let the captaincy 'negatively impact' his batting. The job of captaining the Indian team is already quite pressurizing and on top of it, Gill is also expected to perform brilliantly with the bat. Leadership duties can indeed affect the youngster's batting, however so far he has not put a foot wrong.
"Well, there were other options. Obviously, Jasprit Bumrah had done it and done it pretty well. Whenever I'd seen Jasprit do it in a small sample size, you sensed he knew the game and had a great feel for the game. But obviously with him missing Test matches, that's not ideal. You want continuity as your captain. Rishabh Pant would be a good option. You can see out there in the field, Rishabh last night was doing a lot of the moves," Hussain said on Sky Sports.
"He has the best view, but also batting at five, keeping and captaining. That may put too much on him. And Shubman has done a good job in the IPL. The other thing is his batting. Without Kohli, without Rohit, you want to make sure it doesn't have a negative impact on his batting. Touring England, he hasn't done particularly well away from home. And if anything, so far, again, small sample size, it's had a real positive impact on his batting and coming in at four," he added.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj provided India with a fantastic start on Day 3 by picking up the wickets of both Joe Root and Ben Stokes on consecutive deliveries. England were left reeling on 84/5 and at one stage, it even looked like the Men in Blue would enforce a follow-on over the hosts. However, that all changed thanks to the amazing stand betweeen Harry Brook and Jamie Smith.
Both the batters smashed Indian bowlers all around the stadium and carried their team over the 200-run mark in the first session itself. Just before the end of the session, Smith went on to bring up a highly impressive 80-ball hundred while Brook also remained unbeaten on 91 as England went back to the dugout on 249/5. They are still trailing by 338 runs, but if Brook and Smith continue to bat like this, then the hosts may even manage to take the leed within Day 3 itself.
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