"Can't Apply A Cricket Reason": Manjrekar On Gill's Strange 'Weakness'

Shubman Gill poses a very odd statistic. From 2020 onwards, Gill's average is the highest among any Indian Test batter when you take scores from only the second innings. However, his career Test average is merely 35, meaning that he tends to underperform in the first innings. It proved to be the same again in the first Test between India and Bangladesh, as Gill recovered from a duck in the first innings to a fine 119 in the second. Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar expressed his bewilderment at this repeated occurrence. 

"I have no idea. I just cannot apply a cricketing reason to this," Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo, on why Gill is not able to perform well in the first innings.

"His Test career went off the rails slightly. He started very well against Australia in Australia - got a 90. After that, he had a few opportunities against not-so-great oppositions in India and didn't quite cash in, didn't get the big scores, and then had the tough tours. South Africa is never easy and then came to India and failed in that Hyderabad Test," Manjrekar said.

At the end of day three, Bangladesh were 158/4, with skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (51*) and Shakib Al Hasan (5*) unbeaten. Bangladesh started the post-Tea session at 56/0 with Shadman Islam (21) and Zakir Hasan (32) unbeaten on the crease.

Jasprit Bumrah struck early for India in the session, removing Zakir for 33 (47 balls). The rest three wickets were picked by Ravichandran Ashwin as he dismissed Shadman Islam (35), Mominul Haque (13), and Mushfiqur Rahim (13).

The second session of Day three of the Chennai Test resumed with India at 205/3 with Rishabh Pant (82*) and Shubman Gill (86*) unbeaten on the crease. India now have a lead of 432 runs.

Pant went on to score a century on his comeback innings in the longest format of the game. On the other hand, Gill played an unbeaten knock of 119 runs from 176 balls, which was laced with 10 boundaries and four maximums.

Middle-order batter KL Rahul also played a valuable knock of unbeaten 22 runs in 19 balls, which included four boundaries.

India declared their innings when the team score was 287 runs for the loss of four wickets. They set a target of 515 runs for the visitors in order to win the first match of the series.