Shubman Gill Urged to Avoid Aggression, Virat Kohli's Century Potential Highlighted

The five-match test series between India and England has witnessed a total of three tests so far, in which England has won 2 matches in Leeds and Lords, and India has won only 1 match in the series so far at Edgbaston. Till now, the name of former Indian Test batsman Virat Kohli has come up many times in this three-match series, not because he was the best batsman in Test cricket, but for the way in which he presented himself against the opposition team. He was one such player on the Indian team who used to look into the eyes of the opposing team, seeing which the audience used to get very excited and the bowlers used to remain very confident, especially when India was not able to perform that well.

Former cricketers like Nasser Hussain and Ravi Shastri have said that India's new test captain, Shubman Gill, despite performing well with the bat, lacks that aggression and attitude, especially when India was able to defeat England on day 5 in a headingly bowled match. England won that match easily and took a 1-0 lead in the series, and when Gill tried to adopt an aggressive route, England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett gave him a befitting reply at the end of day 3 of the Lord's Test.

Shubman Gill missed a full toss at the start of the second innings of the 3rd test, due to which he was out for 6 runs. On this, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has warned Gill that he should not become what he is in the process of building a brand.

Manjrekar said,

"If someone wants to build a brand by saying that we are Indians, we are no less than anyone, then this (thinking) gets a lot of attention and benefits. I hope Shubman Gill is not doing this for this reason."

The matter did not end here; Manjrekar even said that Virat Kohli liked to fight with the opposition team because he was his best in the game. He also does not believe that Kohli would have scored more centuries in the second innings at Lord's if he had come to bat at this stage, but Gill appeared to be more composed.

He said,

"What Virat Kohli used to do was his nature. It enhanced his cricket and batting. Shubman Gill, I am not sure if this (aggression) is natural in him or not. If Virat Kohli came to bat, he would have looked at those people's faces and scored a century. But if you see Shubman Gill's body language, the player who has batted almost like Bradman was very uncertain. The way he batted in those 9 balls, it looked as if he had gotten two runs. For me, this is a clear message that aggression is probably not his natural behavior or way."