'Shubman Gill's approach was right' - Harbhajan Singh defends India opener amid failed outing in 3rd Test

Team India had a terrible start to their second innings on Day 2 of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Indian side was bundled out for 109 in the first innings. Meanwhile, Australia had been at a strong position at the end of Day 1 (156/4). The duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav made a comeback for the side, as the visitors could only manage to score 41 runs in the morning session to take an 88-run lead. 

Coming to India’s second Innings, the Rohit Sharma-led side lost four wickets scoring mere 78 runs. Openers Rohit and Shubman Gill had remained unbeaten till Lunch, but Gill gave his wicket cheaply to Nathan Lyon during the second session of the day. The youngster, who came as a replacement of KL Rahul, scored only 5 runs from 15 deliveries in the second innings.

In India’s first innings, Gill had shown some promise, scoring 21 runs. However, his dismissal in the second innings drew criticism for the cricketer over various social media platforms. Even so, veteran India spinner Harbhajan Singh backed the 23-year-old amid the backlash that he has been receiving. Harbhajan stated that the only way of playing on such a pitch is to look for big shots instead of playing defensive for a long time.

“See, the game plan is simple here. You can't survive on this pitch with defence. Pujara was using his feet throughout his innings. If you're thinking that you can wait out for a spell and score runs later, it won't work. Even if you're playing on 70-80 on this pitch, you can get out with just one odd delivery,” Harbhajan said.

“You have to look out for the opportunity to score runs. You need to see where you can get a four. Shubman wanted to go for a six, and when you consider the pitch condition here, his approach was right because you can't defend on this pitch for long,” he added.