The first test between India and Australia will begin at Adelaide tomorrow. Shubnam Gill has voiced his opinion about the alleged chin music of the Australian bowlers. Here is a young Indian player who is thought to be a supremely talented batsman who instead of letting himself score runs against one of the finest attacks in cricket, has talked about sledging. Shubnam Gill must restrain himself. Also, the Indian team for the first test was announced a few hours ago and there is one particular name who has been selected to open the innings when he should not have been considered. Let me comment on these in this article.
Let me begin with the Indian team for the first test
Most of the squad members were a foregone conclusion. In that they were expected to be in the playing eleven if not in the later part of the series, atleast in the first test. The opinion was split only when it came to the opening partner for Agarwal, the keeper and the lone spinner. It was a good decision on the part of the Indian team management to select Saha instead of Pant as the keeper. This despite the fact that Pant scored a rollicking hundred in the 2nd practise game albeit when the wicket became easy to bat on. The lone spinner position went to Ashwin and not Kuldeep.
This is understandable because being the first test of the series and being a day-night game which is expected to help the bowlers, India wants an extra batting option so that the tail will not be lengthy. The 3rd selection is that of Prithvi Shaw. Now, this is a stupid decision and I hope that it will not come back to bite the Indian team.
Prithvi’ Shaw’s struggle
Prithvi Shaw had a wonderful start to his international career. He scored a couple of quick hundreds eventhough it was only against the West Indies and in India. However, for a 18 year old, this was a fabulous start. Much was expected of him after his debut but injury and other off field issues stunted his growth. He was back into the Indian team for the New Zealand series earlier in 2020 and that was where his lack of technique was thoroughly exposed. He has such a loose technique that on helpful wickets, he is a walking wicket. His failures continued in the 2 practise games.
At the sametime, Shubnam Gill, though he hasn’t had a spectacular run in the practise games, had a decent outing in 3 innings. It was expected that Gill will open with Agarwal though I would prefer Vihari to open with Gill in the lower middle order. However, to my surprise, Shaw has been named in the playing eleven. The only reason for this will be the fact that Shaw is senior at the international level to Gill and being the first test, seniority is given preference over talent. This is stupid and ridiculous. I do not have anything more to add to this nonsense decision.
Coming to Shubnam Gill’s comments
As mentioned above, Gill seems to be an excellent talent. Someone the greats like Allan Border & Sunil Gavaskar have praised. He is young and with lots of cricket ahead of him. He has given some outrageous comments
I am not the sort to keep quiet all the time, but I am not likely to say something each time too. So it depends… We sledge too. When teams come to India, we do get involved,”
“Things might have been different earlier, and maybe some of our batsmen were not as aggressive [in terms of scoring], especially in Test cricket. But now you get a result in almost every Test match, so if they come to us with chin music, we have plenty of moves to deal with their chin music.”
Shubnam Gill has lost his mind
These are not comments of a player who is about to start his international career. These are comments of a player who is arrogant and somewhat self-opinionated. Who does he think he is? His comments seems to suggest that he already is a batsman that is equal to some of the batting greats. He suggests that some of the past Indian batsmen weren’t aggressive when it came to scoring. Has he even seen some of the innings played by a Dravid or a Tendulkar or Laxman or for that matter, a Sunil Gavaskar? Not for nothing are some of these players are accepted as great. They were aggressive in their own way. Gill will do well to watch the rerun of some of the games these players played to understand what aggression really means.
Gill also states that the Indian team too sledge. It is ofcourse a well known fact and especially under Kohli, the behaviour of the Indian team is worse. Alongwith Bangladesh, India will be among the top 2 worst behaved teams on the field. However, Gill being a youngster must refrain himself from these and must concentrate on his batting. His primary job is to score runs and not sledge the opposition. His comments seems to suggest that he will not be averse to sledge which is going in the wrong direction.
Conclusion
Gill has played 3 ODIs so far and has scored 49 runs on the whole including a 33 in one game. This means that he hasn’t really had a decent start to his international career and already he has started voicing his opinion about the past cricketers. Gill will need 10 years of consistent scoring to be considered among them. He better keep his mouth shut and let his bat do the talking by piling on runs. If the likes of Border and Gavaskar are impressed, it does mean that he has the game to succeed at the international level. He must not spoil his talent by indulging in activities that may affect his batting.
What do you think of the team selection? Do you think Prithvi Shaw deserves a chance or do you think Gill must have played? Are you of the opinion that Gill should not have commented about the past cricketers? Do let me know your comments in the section below.
Other articles related to the Australian tour can be read here, here, here, here & here.