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Sanjay Manjrekar has criticised Shubman Gill’s defensive captaincy as India lost to England.
Virat Kohli (L) and Shubman Gill shared many Test fields together. (@ShubmanGill/X)
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has said that although the ball was not doing a lot, Shubman Gill and his team pre-empted the conditions and set up a very defensive field against England, which made it easier for the hosts to attack and keep scoring runs.
England defeated India by five wickets in the series opener as they chased down the huge score of 371 on Day 5 of the game.
As a result, Gill became the sixth Indian Test skipper to start his leadership tenure with a defeat.
“Overcast conditions, I know the ball wasn’t doing too much, but they pre-empted the English approach and had a far too defensive field. I hate to bring Virat Kohli as a comparison because it’s unfair on the young man, but you can just imagine Virat Kohli in that situation,” Manjrekar said while speaking on Star Sports.
“Whether they would have got wickets or not, Kohli would have shown the opposition that he’s trying to get them out. Gill is not that kind of personality, nor that kind of captain,” Manjrekar added.
On the personal front, Gill began his leadership tenure silencing his critics with a brilliant knock of 147 in the first innings and became just the fifth India skipper to score a hundred on captaincy debut. India have never won a Test at Edgbaston, having lost seven out of eight games played.
India lost the opening Test despite five of their batters scoring hundreds, as England chased down 371 in the fourth innings to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Gill scored 147 in India’s first innings total of 471 and 8 in the second essay. India collapsed from 430/3 in the first innings to 471, losing seven wickets for 41 runs and in the second, they crumbled to 364 all-out from 333/ 4, losing six wickets for 31 runs.
“It was a brilliant Test. We had our chances, we dropped catches and our lower-order didn’t contribute enough, but proud of the team and overall a good effort. Yesterday, we were thinking around 430 odd and declared, but we lost six wickets for 25 runs (31),” Gill said while speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony.
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