‘Sometimes, there is no technical flaw’: Shubman Gill on India’s issues with Shaheen Afridi

Of course, it was the honeymoon phase of the Asia Cup, where their passage to the Super 4 stage was almost guaranteed. But as the challenge gets tougher over the next week, where they could potentially play four matches in seven days, India will be tested immensely especially on the physical front. But before all of that, first up against Pakistan on Sunday, they have to address a long-pending issue. For unless they do that, it is hard to see this team going the distance at the World Cup.

Opener Shubman Gill, while playing down their trouble against left-arm pacers, believed their recent struggles against Pakistan had more to do with them not playing them often and not being familiar with their attack. “At this level, you would have played left-arm seamers anyway. It does not make much difference. We don’t play against Pakistan often as we do against some other teams. We all know that their bowling attack is quite good and when you don’t play against such attacks often it makes a bit of difference in main tournaments,” Gill said.

Gill was all at sea in his maiden outing against Pakistan, where his struggles against the moving delivery came to the fore again. With the minimum footwork that he has, it wasn’t surprising to see him look vulnerable against Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, who tested both his edges repeatedly. Over the last three training sessions he has attended, he has been focussing a lot on getting his initial trigger movement and footwork right, but Gill said he wasn’t looking to change something.

“Sometimes, there is no technical flaw as such and bowlers also want to get you out and you get some good deliveries and there will be some unfortunate dismissals when you are batting well. But I think you cannot change something in every match because you are not getting runs, and you have to trust your game and go ahead and get those quick runs,” Gill added.

If India have to stay in the game against Pakistan, they will need a strong start from their openers. In the time Gill and Rohit have opened together, the duo average 84.70 and have three century stands and four fifty-plus partnerships together. Unlike Rohit, Gill still prefers to keep the ball mostly on the ground and seldom goes over the air even in the first powerplay.

“The plan will be the same against them as it is against other teams also. Openers need to make a good start and need to dominate them from the beginning. In the league match, our top order did not click much, still we made a competitive total which I think was par for that pitch. At one stage we were feeling that we could score over 300. So, it was a good sign I think that we managed to put on board a competitive total despite not getting a good start,” Gill stated.

With KL Rahul back in the mix, it would be interesting to see how India go about their XI. Although Rahul kept wickets during their training session on Friday, on Saturday it was Ishan Kishan who trained with the slip cordon. Apart from being an in-form batsman, Kishan will be an added resource in the middle-order, especially when factored in the monotony in India’s batting line-up and the make-up of Pakistan’s attack.