“Over the past two or three years, it has been a pretty challenging wicket,” Rahul Dravid says in defense of Shubman Gill’s declining Test numbers.

In ODI cricket, Shubman Gill has been an excellent player for India. Nevertheless, he has not lived up to his enormous potential in Tests and Twenty20 Internationals. When the young batsman made his Test debut for India in the second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in December 2020, he had an incredible start to his Test career. In his first two innings against the elite Australian bowling lineup, he scored 45 and 35 runs without out.

The Punjabi player then responded with a fifty-seven in the opening session of the third Test in Sydney, but it was his ninety-one in the fourth Test in Brisbane that really got the cricket community to take notice of his abilities. Since then, Shubman Gill has produced some incredible innings in One-Day International (ODI) cricket and peaked at number one in the ICC rankings for hitters in the league in November 2023.

But he hasn’t played as well in red-ball cricket. . In the longest version of the game, the right-handed batter has two hundreds, both against Australia and Bangladesh. In addition, he has only added a few half-centuries to his record, following the two he received on his Australian debut tour.

Shubman Gill has amassed 1,040 runs at a pitiful average of 30.59 after playing in 20 Test matches

He recently went down to No. 3 from his opening position. Nevertheless, his luck hasn’t changed after switching up his batting position. Although several cricket enthusiasts and commentators have questioned his position in the team, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid believes he will improve quickly. The former Indian batsman claimed that Shubman Gill cause hasn’t improved because the team has recently played in some difficult batting circumstances. Dravid gave the young man his word that he is on the right track and that he is working hard behind the scenes.

“Shubman Gill plays the game well. When we first start out as cricket players, we occasionally forget that it takes some time. According to The Indian Express, Dravid stated, “Some guys have success instantly; in fact, he is one of those guys who has done really well in some of his early days, especially in Australia.”

To be fair to him, a lot of the young players who are making their way through the ranks are playing on some difficult surfaces, whether they are in the West Indies, England, or India. Over the past two or three years, this wicket has shown to be quite difficult. He is acting appropriately at all times. He is putting in a lot of effort at work. He is making the time and effort necessary. He scored two excellent hundreds for us last season, one against Australia in Ahmedabad and the other in Bangladesh. In Rahul Dravid opinion, he is headed in the right direction.

In the forthcoming five-match Test series against England, the 24-year-old will be crucial to India’s chances, particularly with veteran batsman Virat Kohli missing the matches in Hyderabad and Vizag. On Thursday, January 25, the first Test gets underway in Hyderabad.