After Shubman Gill’s two-ball duck in the second innings of the Hyderabad Test, the team management had given him an ultimatum that Visakhapatnam would be his last chance to retain the No 3 spot in India’s Test team, The Indian Express understands.
The paper also learned that there was a conversation around Gill that he could have been sent to domestic cricket to work on his flaws with a week’s gap between the second and Third Test tin Rajkot. Had he not fought his critics back with a valuable hundred in the second innings in Visakhapatnam, he could have flown to Mohali, where Punjab are hosting Gujarat from February 9 in the Ranji Trophy.
‘I will go and play the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in Mohali,’ a source close to the player told The Indian Express.
Following a barren spell of runs, wherein Gill had only managed 153 runs in the nine innings with the highest score of 36, his place was under immense scrutiny. Bowlers laid bare his vulnerability against both spin and seam movement. He would jab at the spinners with hard hands and would lunge at the seamers with a half-forward front-foot, like in the first innings against James Anderson. The flaws have not yet been fully rectified, but the century gives him the confidence and time to correct those.
Among his vociferous critics was Former India captain Anil Kumble, who criticised the team management for giving Gill an extra ‘cushion’ that veteran Cheteshwar Pujara never got. ‘He (Gill) has been given the cushion perhaps even Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t get, although he (Pujara) has played over 100 Tests.