Shubman Gill polishes game against left-arm spinners at nets

Colombo: Mindful of his underwhelming returns against left-arm spin, India skipper Shubman Gill on Friday, August 21, spent considerable time fine-tuning his game against that variation at the team’s training session ahead of the upcoming second Test against Sri Lanka here.

In the first Test at Galle, Gill fell to left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya twice while making 16 and 8. India, nonetheless, won the game by 165 runs. The second Test begins here on August 23.

In general, Gill’s travails against the orthodox left-armers has its genesis in his inadequate covering of the line, and it was evident at Galle while he struggled to negate Jayasuriya.

Gill has been dismissed 11 times by left-arm spinners in Test cricket across 42 games.

At the Sinhalese Sports Club nets, Gill worked on his game against left-arm spinners, facing up to Manav Suthar, Ravindra Jadeja and a couple of local bowlers for a considerable time.

India’s spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule gave an insight into Gill’s net session on the day, and said the right-hander was trying to adapt to Colombo conditions.

“The way he plays, there is a flow of runs always. So, he is somebody who is just assessing the pitch condition, pace of the pitch and seeing what are the type of shots he can play, what are the defences he can manoeuvre. He is just adapting to the conditions.

“There is nothing too much into it in terms of planning how he is going to approach. He just follows his natural way of playing each innings,” said Bahutule.

But it has to be said that Gill has a better record against off-spinners and leg-spinners with a combined average of 61, and holds a career average of 48 against tweakers of all type.

Kuldeep, Rahul absent

Kuldeep Yadav attended the nets but he neither bowled nor batted. However, off-spinner Saransh Jain bowled a few overs to Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill, and even squared up the former on a couple of occasions.

But it will be naive, at least at this stage, to take it as a sign of Jain replacing Kuldeep in the eleven for the second Test.

“Both KL and Kuldeep are resting. We finished five days of match, we travelled from Galle. So that’s the reason,” said Bahutule.

Kuldeep struggled to make an impact in the Galle Test, conceding 103 runs in 25 runs for a solitary wicket, which too was made possible by Gill’s athleticism at covers.

Opener and vice-captain KL Rahul was absent from nets, while middle-order batter Dhruv Jurel joined in a bit late to polish his skills.

Both Rahul and Jurel had made well-timed fifties in the first Test, contributing to India’s victory.