Shubman Gill, after winning 50 matches, says, "Determined Not To Lose My Wicket To LBW”
On Monday, during the fourth Test against England, Shubman Gill said he had planned not to lose his wicket to an LBW decision come what may, despite the odd ball keeping low and turning sharply, which India won by five wickets. Gill scored an unbeaten 52 in the second innings and shared a 72-run stand with wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel to guide India from a precarious 120/5 to victory without losing any more wickets.
Gill said after winning the match, “I had a plan for the off-spinners—I planned that I was going to keep the LBW out of the game. I have always played off-spinners stepping down the wicket, and in this game, I just had to execute that and just be calm and not be too tentative playing the off-spinners.”
Gill indicated there were no demons in the wicket, and it was “good” for batting.
“I think when you are playing on a wicket like this, you just have to keep the cracks out of the game. I mean, if the ball hits the crack, you can’t do much about it. But if the ball didn’t hit it, then I think it was a good wicket to bat on.”
He also said, “Dhruv being not out on 30 and Kuldeep (Yadav) also being on the pitch for some 17 odd runs (at stumps on day 2), the chat was all about to keep the England lead between 80 and 100 runs—this was what we had initially planned. But the way both of them batted, they exceeded everyone’s expectations.”
In the end, England only enjoyed a 46-run first-inning lead, which was highly manageable.