Shubman Gill, who came in for Rohit Sharma, couldn’t really make his chances count in the first innings of the ongoing fifth Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The right-handed batter, aged 25, walked out to bat at No.3 after the fall of opener KL Rahul. The young player had a good initial balance in his observation but finally lost it soon enough. Gill managed to score 20 runs off 64 balls before playing an unwise shot to a short-length ball from Nathan Lyon into an outside edge. The right-hand batter pounced past the crease with a wild swing.
The ball brushed off the outside edge of his bat, with Steve Smith completing a brilliant catch at the slips. The Australians broke into an emphatic celebration as India lost their third wicket at 57 just before lunch on Day 1. Smith was visibly hyped up after taking the catch. He shared high-fives with his teammates while hurling some words towards a dejected Gill.
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It was actually Gill’s third match of the series. He missed out on the opening game of the series in Perth due to a finger injury. Gill was back in the XI for the pink ball Test at Adelaide, where he scored 31 and 28 in two innings.
His performance had been quite dismal in the Gabba Test as well. Gill could last only three balls before being clean bowled by Mitchell Starc. He was then rested from the Boxing Day Test match at Melbourne, which India lost by 184 runs.
This was supposed to be the last day of a highly punishing summer in Sydney, but instead it just reminded what the Australian Summer will turn out to be for the hosts in the days to come. The Indian top order, unfortunately, imploded again in this Test match, in a familiar manner to the previous games. Fresh from taking over captaincy, replacing Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and opted to bat first.
Not long after Gill’s dismissal, Virat Kohli fell yet again to an outside-off delivery from Scott Boland and was caught at third slip by Beau Webster. Kohli has now been dismissed in such fashion for the seventh time in this BGT series. After walking back, Ravindra Jadeja joined Rishabh Pant to stabilize the innings. India needs a good partnership to recover from the early setback.
