Shubman Gill will have to work on his footwork, reckons Sanjay Manjrekar

Cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has advised Indian opener Shubman Gill to work on his footwork after he was trapped before the wicket by New Zealand’s Tim Southee on the fifth day of the WTC final. 

Shubman Gill had a brilliant start in the first innings, where he comfortably tackled Southee’s swing, but faltered against the right-armer in the second innings while attempting an on-drive that he missed after the bowler beat his bat with a low inswinger. Manjrekar pointed that Gill had never gone on the back foot in the entire game and was heavily relied on playing on the front foot. 

“He will have to work on his footwork, it is always front foot, Shubman Gill right through this Test match not once I’ve seen him go back. So he really is focused on making sure he doesn’t get out to the ball that is pitched up.  There was a lot of talk of his front pad not going far enough and getting caught on the crease in Australia and today again he got caught up in making assure his front pad is across and worried about the outswing area, but then the ball coming back in surprised him,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo. 

The former Indian batsman felt that Indian batters have a preconceived notion of playing on the front foot after playing in Australia, where the ball comes low. The commentator raised his concern on the technique of playing every ball on the front and questioned it by citing the examples of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. 

“The footwork that you see from the batters is the kind of done when we are playing in Australia on a pitch like Adelaide where the ball keeps really low with the bat. All batters come with this preconceived notion that come what maybe we are going to get on the front foot, happened in Melbourne earlier as well.  You see this with Pujara, Gill and even Virat Kohli, which is his basic game. I am a little sceptical whether that’s the right way to be on the front foot all the time.”