Former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble has backed Shubman Gill to keep learning after a hard-fought seven-wicket win against the West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Tuesday. Indian bowlers had to bowl for 200 overs on a slow Delhi track to take their 20 wickets.
John Campbell and Shai Hope scored 115 and 103 runs respectively in the second innings to kick off the visitors’ resistance. Furthermore, Justin Greaves and Jayden Seales added 79 runs for the 10th wicket to frustrate the Indian bowlers.
Gill’s captaincy was also questioned when he had deep fielders for the number 11 batter, Jayden Seales, in the second innings.
Anil Kumble said on JioHotstar, “We were also happy when he enforced the follow-on. So, just experience and learning will certainly stand him in good stead because you won’t get these kinds of surfaces every day in Test match cricket. So, when you do happen to get this kind of a surface or you do happen to get some stubborn lower-order batters, what are things that one needs to do. So, these kinds of experiences are only good for him, and if it happens early in your career and you end up winning it, all the better, because if you start losing, then it starts affecting you. So, if you start winning, you need to learn from those winning experiences.”
“Yeah, you learn along the way as a player, as a captain. New challenges, new team, new players coming on, some of the senior players retire. So, you sort of learn and absorb. It’s not necessary that you need to have conversations all along for you to learn. It’s just observing the opposition captain go about certain things. All of that is a constant learning. So, I am really glad that Shubman is certainly absorbing all of that and putting that to practice,” he added.
On the other hand, Kumble showered praise on Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored a fine knock of 175 runs in the first innings at Delhi. The former Indian captain compared the left-hander with Virender Sehwag.
“He reminds me of Sehwag. Of course, Viru was from ball one. Jaiswal is a bit subdued. He has his own tempo, but he can certainly take the game on the opposition. He did that in the first Test in Australia, where people felt that because of his technique, he will find it difficult with the bounce and carry that you get in Australia, but he proved everyone wrong in terms of going there and getting those runs first in Australia, doing that. In England, he scored runs, in the West Indies, he scored runs, and here.”
“Absolutely outstanding to show that kind of consistency, to show that kind of hunger at a young age. He’s only 23 and he’s played very few Test match cricket and already has seven hundreds to his name, and not just that, some of it really big ones. A double hundred and then big hundreds like the one in the first innings, and he just takes the game away from the opposition,” Kumble added.
India would next face Australia in a three-match ODI series.
