Subramaniam Badrinath slams Shubman Gill’s performance in BGT, says batter failed to live up to expectations

Former Indian batter Subramanian Badrinath slammed Shubman Gill’s performance in the Border-Gavaskar series, stating the right-hander failed to live up to the expectations. Gill could only score 93 runs in five innings at an average of 18.60 against the Aussies.

The right-hander was ruled out of the opening Test match at Perth due to a finger injury however he got off to starts in both innings at Adelaide, returning with scores of 31 and 28.

Gill was dismissed after scoring a solitary run at Brisbane and he was then dropped from the final XI in Melbourne. The right-hander then got back into the team at SCG but could not get a big score.

Badrinath said that Gill’s job while batting at number three was to tire the Australian bowlers but he failed to do so.

“It is very difficult for me to see this. For that level, he has not lived up to expectations. You can get runs, you cannot, but there should have been intent and aggression. I wanted him to tire out the bowlers,” Badrinath said on Star Sports Tamil.

“I want you to make the ball old. Help your teammates and stand firm even if runs are not coming. Play 100 balls, tire the bowlers. This is what your team contribution [is supposed to be]. Labuschange and McSweeney did that in a couple of games. By playing out a lot of dot balls, they had actually made Bumrah injured. If this was Shubman Gill from Tamil Nadu, he would have been dropped,” Badrinath added.

Badrinath questioned Shubman Gill’s contribution to the team as he felt the youngster was not up to the mark in the field as well.

“You must not go there and say, oh, this is the way I play. I will stand and deliver. Four people will write about it. Whatever you can do, at that time, you try and do,” Badrinath said.

“In this series, I did not get it from Shubman. Even on the field, he was poor. He couldn’t stay in slip and point. What does he contribute to the team?” he concluded.

Gill will be seen in action in the ODI series against England.