Gill's iron fist in a velvet glove

India have the benefit of hindsight as the penny drops on their riveting tale of redemption at 'The G'. Besides leaving them fishing for compliments, Shubman Gill's eloquence worth 45 and an unscathed 35 dispatched the brains that be down the lanes of introspection. As blood-thirsty piranhas of the ilk of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood nursed their egos, India couldn't help but wonder why they gave Gill the cold shoulder at Adelaide. In retrospect, it's not misplaced optimism to believe that had the young prodigy opened the innings then and there, the darkest day in the history of Indian cricket could've been nipped in the bud. 

Writing that Gill is technically accomplished is stating the bleeding obvious. It's there for the world to see, printed in bold and capital. What slips the eye of the beholder is the iron fist in his velvet glove. His outrageous intent, his audacity. How dare the boy think like that? Milking Starc on the up with four slips waiting impatiently for the dreaded edge. Pulling Cummins flat in front of mid-wicket. Flaying Hazlewood with the swing through covers. He dares. He thinks. He does. And does it in some style. 

The holiest among the several gospels of batting is that of playing the ball and not the bowler. Easier said than done, for the intimidation factor often washes over a batsman's bid to get the basics right. That Gill cracked the code against the most fearsome of attacks is no mean feat. If it was there to be hit, he put it away with unabated frequency. Nothing that trespassed his stroke-making radar could escape the soothing balm of a punishment. It was as if a formula had been borrowed from Virender Sehwag's doctrine and multiplied into the equation with the rustic charm of aesthetics. 

"When I came into bat, there was something in the pitch and the pitch was lively," Gill said, reflecting on his first-inning heroics. "The only thing that I told myself was that no matter what is happening on the pitch, or what is happening around me, I should play my game and should express myself and I should play with intent. That was my whole thought process." 

"I've been travelling with the team for the last four-five Test series. Being with the team, it helped me a lot. To be able to settle in the team. I've been doing all my net sessions and practice sessions, to be able to play someone like Boom (Bumrah), Shami bhai, Umesh bhai or Ishant bhai in the nets, it's a huge confidence booster for a youngster to be playing against a top bowling attack in the nets. When I went out to bat today, I didn't really feel like I was in a whole new place.", the rookie added. 

Gill put his best foot forward in what were the first couple of trips to the crease in a propitious Test career lying ahead, but there's always the scope for improvement. The exuberance of youth was proving too hot to handle once in a while as wide tempters were chased with reckless abandon and whips tucked off alarmingly straight deliveries. The urge to score and score quickly makes Gill prone to generic, school-boy errors, and him caving in to temptation when within sniffing distance of a half-century on debut romps the point home. "I'm not really happy with the way I got out. It was the last ball of Cummins's spell and I should have seen it off. It was a loose shot to play at that moment. But overall my goal was to play with intent and build partnerships, and I managed it to an extent.", he conceded. 

Rohit Sharma is girding up his loins for the Third Test and would, in all likelihood, caper into the eleven at the expense of Mayank Agarwal, whose wretched run of form of late has invited the jeers of a 'walking wicket'. The snub won't be a fair deal for Agarwal since he was churning out decent numbers before boarding the flight to the Tasman, but with the series now stuttering at even-stevens, India certainly don't find themselves in a position to bet on a dead horse. 

Cricket Australia has confirmed that the forthcoming encounter between Australia and India from January 7, 2021, will be held in Sydney, despite a recent and fresh outbreak of COVID-19 cluster in New South Wales posing a stumbling block. Cricket, just like the whole world, is hanging by a thread in times of such treacherous turbulence inflicted by the pandemic. The year 2020 was a gift that kept on giving. In Gill, India received theirs too. And it was a mighty good one for a change.

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