Test Matches: India has lost the opening match against England in Hyderabad yesterday. The Men in Blue were in the game for the first two days of this 1st Test match which was played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal.
India bowled and batted well in the 1st innings. The hosts bundled out England for 246 runs and piled up 436 runs in their 1st innings.
But things didn’t pan out well for the Men in Blue in their second innings. The visitors, England made a strong comeback in the match.
Despite having the opposition team for 163 for 5, India couldn’t enforce a win as their bowlers failed to strangle the batsmen of England and with that India even failed to chase down a score of 231 runs to win that encounter.
So, the home side lost the first Test match by 28 runs and England lead the five-match red ball series by a margin of 1-0.
Now Rohit Sharma and his men will be aiming for a comeback in the second red ball game which will be played in Visakhapatnam from Friday, 2nd February 2024 to Tuesday, 6th February 2024.
Shubman Gill has been a terrific opening batter in all three formats of this gentlemen’s game. But India has now decided to make The Prince bat at number 3 in the Test matches.
However, Gill has found it tough batting at that new number. He has failed to translate his form while opening the innings at the number 3 position.
After India had lost the World Test Championship final against Australia last year in 2023, the Men in Blue decided to have a new opening combination in Test Matches.
That’s why Yashaswi Jaiswal was given a chance in the two-match series of the red ball format against West Indies and since then Shubman Gill also started to bat at the number 3 batting spot.
Gill has played six Test matches and 10 innings at his new number and he has scored just 189 runs at an average of 21 with no half-centuries and centuries at the number 3 position, which is less when it is compared to the stats that can be seen whenever Gill has opened the innings in the Test Matches for India.
Gill has scored the most runs while batting at number 2 position, which is while opening the innings in Test Matches. He has scored 846 runs from 14 matches and 25 innings with a good average of 36.78. Gill has scored 2 centuries and four half-centuries in Test Matches.
All of his milestones have come at the 2nd position in the red ball matches for the Men in Blue side. In the first match of the series versus England, Shubman scored just 23 runs in the 1st innings and got out on 0 in the second outing. The Prince needs to step up now otherwise his place in that Test side is in danger.
India might go with Shubman at that same number in the 2nd Test match despite his past failures and low scores in the opening red ball match in Hyderabad.
But once Virat Kohli returns in the squad from the 3rd Test match onwards, Gill might have to sit out and warm the bench if he fails to use his opportunities.
