Shubman Gill admitted that he was under immense pressure and was feeling nervous before going into the second Test against England.
Shubman Gill revealed his father wasn’t happy with the way he got out after scoring the century in the second Test against England at Visakhapatnam. Shubman scored 104 in the second innings to help India set a match-winning target of 398.
“My dad said I missed out on a big one. I said ‘I agree, Papa’. Thank God he let me come out of the hotel today,” Gill told Kevin Pietersen on Sports 18.
Right from his U-14 days, Shubman Gill’s father, Lakhwinder, an ardent cricket fan, would get upset whenever he threw away his starts. When the entire country was celebrating Gill’s famous 91 at Gabba, Gill Sr was rueing the fact that why all of a sudden his son “played away from his body” against Nathan Lyon.
Before the century on Saturday, Gill has had a nightmare with the bat in the longest format where he had only managed 153 runs in the nine innings with the highest score of 36. It got so bad that his place in the squad was also under scrutiny.
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Shubman Gill admitted that he was under immense pressure and was feeling nervous before going into the second Test against England.
“I’ll sum it up in one line. My heartbeat playing the first ball and the last ball was the same throughout the innings,” he said.
“That’s how nervous I was feeling even after scoring my hundred. That was what I was talking to Rahul sir in the morning when England were batting. It was quite weird for me. I have never experienced like this.”
Bazball video for IND vs ENG Test series copy embeds: Bazball video for IND vs ENG Test series copy embeds:
“Obviously, not being able to score runs the previous few matches,” Gill elaborated.
“It wasn’t the outside noise but the expectations that I have for myself… I was disappointed how I got out in the first innings here in Visakhapatnam and in the first innings in Hyderabad. So all of that expectations, I was disappointed, maybe that’s the reason.”
Gill also opened up about his decision to bat at No 3 instead of opening.
“People kept asking me why I went from opening to No. 3. I told them that I have batted at No. 3 in first-class and scored three double-hundreds at No. 3 and No. 4,” Gill said.
“So it wasn’t something that I have never done in my life. But batting at No. 3 is obviously different in internationals. And I was thankful that I got the experiences and the opportunities and the mistakes that I made… they all led up to this innings. Hope to learn from these experiences.
“I don’t read the newspapers but I have seen it with other players. I don’t go on social media to see what people are saying. Because you know, if you’re not doing well, you don’t expect people to tell you you’re not doing well. You know yourself you’re not doing well. More than anyone else, it was my own personal disappointment that I wasn’t performing the way I wanted to perform.”
Source:indianexpress.com