File photo of Shubman Gill© AFP
Former Indian cricket team batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes Shubman Gill needs to work on his defense to become a huge run-scorer in Tests. Gill has come in for a lot of criticism of late for his poor form in the sport's longest format and Manjrekar believes his defense is a concern. Gill got a good start on Day 1 of the second Test match against England, but he again failed to capitalize as he was dismissed by James Anderson after scoring 34 from 46 deliveries.
'Shubman Gill, how does he respond to his failures? He needs to do something about his defense if he wants to be the productive run-getter in the team at Test level, both against swing and spin,” Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
“That is a cause for concern and that is something that will not be solved easily. These are beyond the control of the team management and selectors,” he added.
The other batsman who has struggled to score runs in Tests of late is Shreyas Iyer. While he had a brilliant Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign, his Test batting left a lot to be desired. Manjrekar said he needs to find a safer approach while maintaining his aggressive mentality to be successful.
“Shreyas Iyer seems to want to play the modern way, which is about finding a way out of trouble, so be it. We saw the English batters taking a safer approach to be aggressive,” Manjrekar said.
“He needs to find one because just throwing balls across the field or towards mid-wicket is much riskier than playing the reverse sweeps and the switch reverse sweeps,” he concluded.
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