"You can see pressure has gone to Shubman Gill" - Dinesh Karthik on the Indian youngster
Dinesh Karthik pointed out how Team India's top-order batter Shubman Gill has been under the scanner following a string of poor performances in Test cricket.
Karthik opined that the talented youngster was quite tentative in his approach while batting on Day 1 of the ongoing first Test against England in Hyderabad. Suggesting that Gill may lose his place in the national team if his disappointing performances continue, Karthik told Cricbuzz:
"You can see pressure has gone to Shubman Gill. He knows if he fails a couple of times, his career, for the moment, could be on the line. So, you could see that reluctance."
Gill failed to make a mark during India's two-match Test series against South Africa last year. He mustered just 74 runs across four innings. He got off to a decent start in the first Test against England, remaining unbeaten on 14 off 43 deliveries as India finished 119/1 at stumps.
"A huge learning curve for Ben Stokes" - Dinesh Karthik on the all-rounder's captaincy
Dinesh Karthik further spoke about how Ben Stokes cannot succeed against India by using the same approach he did during the side's Test series in Pakistan.
The 38-year-old mentioned that Stokes and Co. will have to change their game in India, as the pitches and the batting quality are quite different compared to Pakistan.
Speaking about Stokes' captaincy, the Indian keeper said:
"After (Tom Hartley's) three overs, I think 99 percent of the captains would have taken him off. I also think it is a huge learning curve for Ben Stokes as well. He is playing and captaining a little bit like how he captained (against) the Pakistan team. Two things are different than the Pakistan team: the calibre of batting and the kind of pitches that they played on."
"They played on flat pitches where they could score 500 at a quick pace and put Pakistan, who just played orthodox cricket and got that score in a much longer time. So, his way of setting fields was a lot more attacking, which is understandable because he had 500 runs on the board," Karthik concluded."
Stokes shone with the bat on Day 1 of the Hyderabad Test, scoring 70 runs off 88 balls. However, the remaining batters failed to make a significant impact as they were bowled out for 246 runs.