
New Delhi: There should always be a good first step to any new era of cricket. However Shubman Gill on his first Test as Indian red-ball captain had a bittersweet experience as things unfolded in the end as England successfully chased the target of 371 runs in Leeds and lead 1-0 in the five-match series. On losing the match Gill avoided fighting back but carried herself well in the post-match presentation which was an honest evaluation of the poor performance of the side. India were not outplayed during the five days of the game in fact they had enjoyed vast parts of the game. Four Indian hitters went past a hundred Shubman Gill Yashasvi Jaiswal KL Rahul and a pair of thunderous centuries Rishabh Pant. However the problems came in spaces in between those stellar games the time when India lost their control of the match. In both of the innings India collapsed spectacularly after getting themselves in overwhelming positions. They were in a position to score 430/3 in the first inning but managed to lose the remaining seven wickets at only 41 runs. The same scenario was replicated in the second innings in which they were rolling along at 287/3 yet collapsed to 364. Failure by the middle and lower order to establish good foundation was one of their weaknesses After the game Gill spoke of the tendency of collapsing that damaged India. He highlighted that the team was in excellent situations in both the innings but had failed to convert it into good ones. He acknowledged that it was an area of concern and said that the matter needs to be addressed before the second Test. Gill ond Indias sudden collapses Yesterday we were thinking we’d get to around 430–435 and then look to declare. But unfortunately our last six wickets added only around 20–25 runs which is never ideal. Even today after their brilliant opening partnership I felt we had our chances — things just didn’t go our way in this match Gill said. Another big worry of India was their fielding as the Indians dropped as many as six catches in these two innings. Four of those were handled by Yashasvi Jaiswal the key one when Ben Duckett was on 97. Duckett took advantage of the reprieve and ended up to attain 149 and also being named the Player of the Match. Need of improving fielding Gill was not hesitant about commenting on the lapses filed by the fielders. He agreed that the team needs to tighten their work on the field and take advantage of the opportunities especially on the make-or-break final-day pitches where even one chance being left will tip the scale and flip the direction of the game. While we dropped a few catches and our lower order didn’t contribute as much as we would have liked I’m still really proud of the overall effort we put in Gill added. Making this defeat worse was the fact that England in pursuit of 371 were in the midst of a second best successful fourth-innings tally ever in Test cricket history and the first of such feat in Headingley. A dominant opening partnership of 188 runs between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett set it up and the bowling attack of India which includes the greats of the trade like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj did not find bowler-friendly conditions early on. However Gill did not insist on being judgmental. Later he admitted that the team is still young and resolving to learn and there is faith that they will learn and become better with this experience. Nevertheless his leadership had a tone of maturity which was more on growth and strength instead of accusation. Chances don’t come easy especially on wickets like this. And we did drop quite a few. But this is a young team — we’re still learning. Hopefully in the next matches we’ll be able to improve in those areas he added.
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