Shubman Gill: 'The game loses its essence' without help for bowlers

[vvvslaxman]

Shubman Gill: 'The game loses its essence' without help for bowlers

India captain believes the Dukes ball going soft and the pitches being flat are taking away from the fun of Test cricket

 

 

Shubman Gill feels the combination of flat pitches and the Dukes ball is taking away from the essence of Test cricket in England. After India managed to take 20 wickets - 15 of them in bursts with three new balls - to level the series 1-1, he was asked what he thought of these conditions that happen to have coincided with the Bazball era in England.

 

"It gets very difficult for the bowlers," Gill said. "Even more than the wicket [pitch], the ball is going soft and out of shape very quickly. I don't know what it is - weather, wickets [pitches] or whatever - but it gets very difficult for the bowlers to get wickets in these conditions. As a team, when you know it is difficult to get wickets and runs are coming easily, a lot of things are out of your control.

 

"I think there should be a little help at least. If the ball is doing something, you enjoy playing. If you know there is only 20 overs of any help and then you have to spend the rest of the day on the defensive, thinking how to stop runs, then the game loses its essence."

 

Gill, though, went on to joke he didn't mind the relief as a batter after having had a baptism in spicy conditions all over the world. In the first Test at Headingley, in pretty much similar conditions, India left runs out in the middle through some casual batting from the lower order. Gill took it upon himself to lead by example after having holed out on 147 in the last Test.

 

 

"Sometimes, especially when you are the captain, I think you need to lead by example so that whenever there is another player in that situation, you can command to that player," Gill said after scoring 269 and 161 across two innings at Edgbaston. "'This is what the team requires right now and you always have to put the team first rather than your personal desires.' Or sometimes you want to try some things, but I think if you put the team ahead of you, you will always walk in the right direction or walk on the right path and that's what I wanted to do in this match. If a good ball gets me out, it gets me out, but as long as I'm there, I want to play as long as possible."

 

Having seen the full might of India's batting somewhere near its ruthless best, Gill joked he didn't expect England to roll out such a flat track again. That was when he was asked whether he missed Kuldeep Yadav's wristspin during those dreadful middle overs. He said it wasn't easy for him to leave out a bowler of the quality of Kuldeep, but he felt he needed a bit of the depth that Washington Sundar could - and did - provide.

 

India are not used to playing such long Tests matches. The tracks at home aid spin, and when India play away, they are handed green seamers. When asked what he had learnt from these rare back-to-back Tests that practically went to the last session, Gill said India were pleased most of the time was spent by them batting.

 

 

"Definitely helped us in a massive way," Gill said. "I would say not many Test matches when we play in India go for five days. But luckily most of the days when we are playing here we are batting and not fielding, so that's good for us. Even in the first innings, I think we fielded for about 90 overs, which is about a day. So I think that's good. I think even in the series, in the upcoming matches, if you're able to score runs consistently and post around 400 or 300 totals, we will always be in the game."

 

Gill was full of praise for the bowlers that made sure that India didn't have to field for too long. "They were absolutely magnificent for us," Gill said of Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj. "Both of them took 16-17 wickets. That itself is a big, big achievement coming into this Test match, especially without Jasprit [Bumrah] bhai. There were a lot of questions if we would be able to take those 20 wickets. And the way these two guys delivered was just outstanding. I have no words to describe."

 

Gill said these were the best players in the country, and he believed that any bowling combination selected from the squad of 16 can take 20 wickets anywhere in the world.

[Prabhdeep Singh]

Well done, twist the knife more into Bazball tactics, soon the English media will turn on their own team.

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-14880295/Why-Englands-bowlers-werent-happy-Edgbaston-pitch-better-options-Shoaib-Bashir-BUMBLE-TEST.html

 

Enjoying the pain and suffering lol

 

Bowlers' beef with the pitch

There are rumblings from the England camp that too much grass was taken off an Edgbaston pitch from which India’s pacers extracted more movement than their counterparts.

The India bowlers are generally shorter in stature and their deliveries just kiss the surface, as opposed to England’s taller men who hit the pitch hard. It's slow nature nullified their pace.

 

 

[Prabhdeep Singh]

The reason England have employed Bazball tactics is their defensive technique is mediocre, they could not survive barely 2 sessions to draw game. Before they tried the normal test match route when root was captain they like won 1 match in 17 or something.

 

It will be so funny if India wins series, their whole bazball is dependent on the 2 series vs India and Australia later this year.

 

If they lose both, their bazball will all be crumbling down.

 

They have also messed up county cricket by only picking players who play in bazball style making 90% players looking to play test cricket redundant hence reducing their pool of players to pick from.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2025 by Prabhdeep Singh

[vvvslaxman]

5 minutes ago, Prabhdeep Singh said:

The reason England have employed Bazball tactics is their defensive technique is mediocre, they could not survive barely 2 sessions to draw game. Before they tried the normal test match route when root was captain they like won 1 match in 17 or something.

 

It will be so funny if India wins series, their whole bazball is dependent on the 2 series vs India and Australia later this year.

 

If they lose both, their bazball will all be crumbling down.

 

They have also messed up county cricket by only picking players who play in bazball style making 90% players looking to play test cricket redundant hence reducing their pool of players to pick from.

 

 

So far teams could not outbat them. Now we have Gill singlehandedly leading the charge of outbatting them to ground.  WIth guys like Pant inflicting more pain they have nowhere to run.

[Lord]

He really loves his 35 average

[Lord]

29 minutes ago, Prabhdeep Singh said:

Well done, twist the knife more into Bazball tactics, soon the English media will turn on their own team.

 

 

Twitterati already slamming them

[Prabhdeep Singh]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

So far teams could not outbat them. Now we have Gill singlehandedly leading the charge of outbatting them to ground.  WIth guys like Pant inflicting more pain they have nowhere to run.

Yes, Indians also have the skill if they want to bat this way.

 

But the objective is to win games & series.

 

India does not have the liberty to go with the flow if you have multiple series defeat. Hence Rohit & Virat had to make way. There is too much batting talent waiting in the wings.

 

Indian fans like exciting cricket, however winning team is the most important.

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, Prabhdeep Singh said:

Yes, Indians also have the skill if they want to bat this way.

 

But the objective is to win games & series.

 

India does not have the liberty to go with the flow if you have multiple series defeat. Hence Rohit & Virat had to make way. There is too much batting talent waiting in the wings.

 

Indian fans like exciting cricket, however winning team is the most important.

One of the biggest advantage is India is blessed players having multiple gears. Look at the way GIll accelerated. He hit 8 sixes in all in the 2nd innings.

[DeepSpace]

6 minutes ago, Lord said:

He really loves his 35 average

It is up to 42.72.

[Lord]

1 minute ago, DeepSpace said:

It is up to 42.72.

Yeah but he's not happy

[figo6762]

21 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

So far teams could not outbat them. Now we have Gill singlehandedly leading the charge of outbatting them to ground.  WIth guys like Pant inflicting more pain they have nowhere to run.

Would love to see Sai Su or Nair or Washi bullying them as well .. hopefully happens at some point in the series 

[DeepSpace]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

Yeah but he's not happy

Good! I want him to be unhappy at 58!

[StraightDrive26]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

Yeah but he's not happy

He is the captain of the team now and not an individual batter, he has to think about wins and not about how many runs he can score.

[DeepSpace]

15 minutes ago, StraightDrive26 said:

He is the captain of the team now and not an individual batter, he has to think about wins and not about how many runs he can score.

But one main way he can show leadership is scoring heaps of runs for his team at a good pace and thus lead by example, something cannot be said of Fat Bastard and Chokohli (post 2019). He is in the team as a batsman.

Edited July 6, 2025 by DeepSpace

[StraightDrive26]

1 hour ago, DeepSpace said:

But one main way he can show leadership is scoring heaps of runs for his team at a good pace and thus lead by example, something cannot be said of Fat Bastard and Chokohli (post 2019). He is in the team as a batsman.

No point in scoring heaps of runs if your team cannot win. He cannot come out and say let the pitch be flat so that I can lead the way with mountain of runs while my bowlers struggle. All captains except for stokes would prefer some help for the bowlers. 

[rkt.india]

3 hours ago, StraightDrive26 said:

He is the captain of the team now and not an individual batter, he has to think about wins and not about how many runs he can score.

But he will have to score runs to win. 

[Manucrick]

Just shut up gill you are getting a flat pitch to increase your average and still our bowlers take 20 wickets so don't complain just enjoy this tour 

[R!TTER]

11 hours ago, Prabhdeep Singh said:

Well done, twist the knife more into Bazball tactics, soon the English media will turn on their own team.

Wish our stupid *s aka friends of VKG would've done that when we were producing dank turners post 2020/21  

 

Too many of you were cheering these tactics as well, so long as Eng/Oz/NZ were getting humiliated - then lo & behold 2024 happened 

[cowboysfan]

England have made a mockery of Test cricket.If its just pitch manipulation then even we have done it but they have taken this to whole another level.They have brought the boundary line way in which is ridiculous for a Test match,they have completely destroyed the credibility of Duke balls too .