Alastair Cook believes Shubman Gill will be the next big thing after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
New Delhi: Shubman Gill is seen as one of India’s future stars and many even consider him the next big thing in Indian cricket after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. Gill was coming from a series of low scores but after his century against England in the second innings in Vizag, he shut down all his critics.
Former England captain Alastair Cook also believes Gill is the one who will take the lead in the Indian batting line-up after Virat Kohli. “Gill played beautifully. He has serious talent… and there was probably quite a lot of pressure on his shoulders. At the World Cup [in India], all the billboards were of Kohli, but he’s the next one they want to step into his shoes,” Cook said while speaking to TNT Sports.
Cook also talked about how Gill will have to deal with a lot of pressure and expectations just like Kohli and Tendulkar and he need to learn how to deal with it. “That’s a big thing to have the pressure of a country the size of India on your shoulders. As a young talent, that’s something that the likes of Tendulkar and Kohli have dealt with… and he now has to learn to deal with it.”
“What we’ve seen today is just how talented he is, the shots he has, and we’re definitely going to see him the rest of this series. He was out of form, hadn’t scored many runs, and there’s Rahul and Kohli to come back into the side, but he’s made sure now that the selectors can’t ignore him,” he added.
After setting an imposing target of 399 to beat India in the second Test, England ended day three’s play at 67/1 in 14 overs. Though India are very much in the ascendancy, there remains the outside chance of England completing an improbable chase through their Bazball style of playing Test cricket. Ben Duckett made 28 in a fifty-run opening stand with Zak Crawley before being dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Crawley remained not out on 29, alongside the promoted Rehan Ahmed, who’s unbeaten on nine, with England needing 332 more runs for an astonishing victory in what is the toughest challenge of the Bazball era so far. No team has ever made 300 in a fourth-innings chase in India and England’s challenge also includes a pitch with variable bounce, as well as Joe Root’s right little finger injury.
With 14 overs left in the day, Duckett and Crawley took two boundaries each off Mukesh Kumar, though Bumrah got the new ball to talk and ask questions of the openers. Crawley was quick to slog-sweep Kuldeep Yadav for six, followed by Duckett taking two fours off him via sweeps.
But Ashwin struck by ending Duckett’s stay with a drifting-in delivery which he bat-pad to wicketkeeper K.S. Bharat, who dived forward from his usual keeping position to take a diving catch. Crawley then drove Ashwin down the ground for four while Rehan took two boundaries off Axar to end an engrossing day of Test cricket.
Previously, riding on Shubman Gill’s third Test century, and some important contributions from Axar Patel and Ashwin, India’s second innings ended at 255 in 78.3 overs. Gill got a few slices of luck early on and made it count by slamming 104 off 147 balls, his first Test century as a number three batter.