Chennai: Among the several reasons Bangladesh bowlers couldn’t make any headway in the morning session, Shubman Gill’s use of feet against spin was possibly the most crucial. With the pitch flattening out and providing absolutely no help to the pacers, the onus was on Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan to keep the scoring in check and make India bat as long as possible. That didn’t happen once Gill got a hang of the pitch and their lengths.
“Initially when I used to practise, especially against spinners, I used to step down trying to rotate. It’s the same here because it’s hard for bowlers to settle on a wicket like this where the odd one is turning but not all the balls are turning,” Gill told reporters in the post-day press conference. “I practised before the series, I had certain plans, so I think I executed them. It’s about having a good defence but then also not missing out on the opportunities that you get as a batsman to be able to score runs.”
Gill had begun watchfully — the first hour produced only 48 runs in 15 overs — before two sixes off Miraz got him a fifty, and the floodgates opened for India. “I see my shots, my areas. If I get a ball here, I will try to make a run in this area. If I get a ball in this area, it’s a good ball, I will try to defend it,” Gill explained his approach. “It doesn’t really matter what’s happening at the other end and obviously the team knows what the requirement is, that comes first and then you make your game plan accordingly.”
Gill wasn’t in best shape last year, having not scored a hundred in a while and asked to open the batting before moving to No.3. But the home series against England where he aggregated 452 runs, including two hundreds, reinstated the belief that Gill is indeed cut out for this position. “I think the series that I had against England gave me a lot of confidence. And I felt it was a long time coming for me, especially batting at that position,” he said. “And having got out the way I got out in the first innings, I was obviously very disappointed. As a batsman, you can’t do anything about it. But it further motivated me to be able to spend a lot of time on the crease and put extra value on my wicket.”
None of this would have been possible without the support of Pant who scored a belligerent hundred playing in his first Test since the car crash that kept him out for nearly two years. Starting the day on 12, Pant took the initiative to attack, giving Gill adequate time to settle into a rhythm. “I have spent a lot of time with him on and off the field and watching him score his first fifty and first hundred after his comeback gives me so much pleasure,” said Gill. “I have seen him work so hard for it when he was coming back from the injury and I think he also must be feeling really good.”
That they were relishing the partnership — 167 for the fourth wicket — was evident in the way Pant and Gill knocked their bats after every boundary. Probably too hard, Gill later revealed. “My bat is quite old actually. And he was hitting my bat so hard. I was telling him, you know, I’m trying to save my bat,” said Gill. “And if he didn’t middle it, he would say, ‘No, let’s do it again.’ And I was like bro, calm down.”
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