Indian captain Shubman Gill was playing well in the third ODI against New Zealand chasing a big total of 338 before he was cleaned up by Kyle Jamieson in the seventh over of the chase. Playing on 23 runs off 18 balls, Gill was clean bowled from a Jamieson delivery that nipped back in sharply and went past Gill’s forward defence. The ball was pitched in the outside off channel and with Gill pressing forward in defence, the ball went past the inside edge, clipped the top of his pads and crashed into the off-stump. Former Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar criticised his technique while playing the incoming delivery and also cited his form in England tour when he had where was not facing the trouble with the proper technique. “When Shubman Gill got those 754 runs in England, the bat and pad were so close to each other. I kept saying the bat and pad were like a just married couple. They were that close to each other and his defense looked impregnable,” said Gavaskar during the commentary. “The straight driving was as crisp as when Sachin Tendulkar was at his best, and as good as Virat Kohli’s straight driving. 754 runs, observing proper batting technique,” he added further. He further called the advice to change his backlift while playing in white-ball cricket as ‘nonsense’. “We can have a look at the gap between bat and ball. It is a big gap and (bat) coming from an angle, that’s what I think the talk was, that if you want to succeed in the white ball game, you’ve got to bring your bat from about third man or gully. Nonsense,” he said. This is not a new problem for Gill, who has struggled in past in front of the incoming deliveries. As written by The Indian Express back in 2022, his biggest problem while batting was: the slow weight transfer onto the front foot. The slow weight transfer stems from his childhood training on cement tracks. On cement, the backfoot becomes an instinctive play, and the front foot something to be worked on. Batting is about transferring weight and being still when playing a shot. At the top level one needs to be strong on the back foot but still have the balance and skill to play under the eyes, and be in a position to transfer the weight forward.
India v NZ 3rd ODI: Sunil Gavaskar criticises Shubman Gill’s technique after he was bowled to another incoming delivery
