'I had a plan for off-spinners to keep LBWs out of the game' - Shubman Gill

Shubman Gill and Player of the Match, Dhruv Jurel, remained unbeaten as India defeated England by five wickets on Day 4 of the fourth Test against England in Ranchi on Monday, February 26. With this victory, India has also taken an unassailable lead of 3-1 in the series, with the final match to be played in Dharamsala.

Gill spoke exclusively to JioCinema on ‘Match Centre Live’ after the day’s play. Here are some excerpts:

On the wicket and his game: 'I think when you are playing on a wicket like this, you just have to keep the cracks out of the game. I mean, if the ball hits the crack, you can’t do much about it. But, if the ball didn’t hit it, then I think it was a good wicket to bat on. I had a plan for the off-spinners - I planned that I am going to keep the LBW out of the game. I have always played off-spinners stepping down the wicket and in this game, I just had to execute that and just be calm and not be too tentative playing the off-spinners.'

On India’s approach on Day 3: 'Yesterday, Dhruv (Jurel) being not out on 30 and Kuldeep (Yadav) also being on the pitch for some 17 odd runs, the chat was all about to keep the lead between 80 to 100 runs - this was what we had initially planned. But the way both of them batted - they exceeded everyone’s expectations. And the way Dhruv batted, he was so mature to take on the spinners when needed and he was equally helped by Akash (Deep), Kuldeep, and (Mohammed) Siraj. Then, once the lead was just 40 to 50 runs, we knew that we were back in the game and our bowlers just had to keep the pressure on the batters.'