Shubman Gill received his Test cap under the most daunting circumstances back in 2020. The Indian team was riddled with multiple injuries to their senior players and Gill was tasked to face the new ball at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The then 21-year-old grabbed his chance with both hands as he made 45 and 35 in that match which proved to be valuable for India to level the series.
His knock of 91 in the second innings of the final Test at Brisbane laid the foundation for the visitors’ chase of 328 to clinch the series in one of the most memorable series victories in recent times.
However, four years later Gill was listless facing the same opposition as a much senior member of the squad, often done in by pace and bounce. The right-hander managed just 93 runs from five innings batting at No.3 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 which led to multiple batting collapses.
Former Tamil Nadu and Chennai Super Kings batter Subramaniam Badrinath was severely critical of Gill’s failure, pointing to the specificity of his role in the batting order.
“I want you to make the ball old. Help your teammates and stand firm even if runs are not coming. Play 100 balls, tire the bowlers. This is what your team contribution [is supposed to be]. Labuschange and McSweeney did that in a couple of games. By playing out a lot of dot balls, they had actually made Bumrah injured,” Badrinath said while speaking on Star Sports Tamil.
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Badrinath also lambasted Gill’s attitude on the pitch throughout the series by saying, “You must not go there and say, oh, this is the way I play. I will stand and deliver. Four people will write about it. Whatever you can do, at that time, you try and do.”
“In this series, I did not get it from Shubman. Even on the field, he was poor. He couldn’t stay in slip and point. What does he contribute to the team?” he added.
Gill has been under fire for his Test performances off late as he managed to reach fifty just four times in the last 20 innings.
Badrinath also took a thinly-veiled dig at the team management saying Gill would’ve been dropped from the playing XI had he been from Tamil Nadu.
“If this was Shubman Gill from Tamil Nadu, he would have been dropped.”
The 25-year-old’s overseas numbers have also seen a sharp decline as he averages a paltry 22.94 from 18 innings since 2022, with 110 against Bangladesh in December, 2022 being the only notable contribution.
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