The biggest series of this year for Team India is going to be the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In this series, India will play a 5-match Test series against Australia in their home. This tour of Australia is becoming very important for India because the Indian batsmen will be put to a tough test on the bouncy pitch. In Test cricket, batting in the second innings has always been more difficult than the first innings. It will be more challenging on Australian soil.
However, this will no longer be a matter of tension for India. A young batsman of the Indian team is consistently performing brilliantly in the second innings of the Test match. This batsman is none other than Shubhman Gill. Gill could not even open his account in the first innings of the Chennai Test but he scored a brilliant century in the second innings.
Gill has an excellent record
Gill scored the fifth Test century of his Test career. He played an unbeaten innings of 119 runs with the help of 10 fours and four sixes on 176 balls. Gill's innings came at a time when the Indian team had lost 3 wickets for just 67 runs in the second innings. Before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it is a relief news that Gill has scored a big score by taking his team out of difficult situations.
Seeing the way Gill has batted in the second innings of the last few Test matches, he is now being called a specialist in the second innings of Tests. The figures also clearly testify to this. The 25-year-old batsman is scoring runs at an impressive average of 79.66 while batting at number three in the second innings of Test matches. Playing at number 3 in the third or fourth innings of a Test match, Gill has so far scored 478 runs in 9 innings with two centuries. His overall average in the second innings of Tests is 51.
India had given a big target
On Saturday, the third day of the first Test, India declared their second innings at 287 for four and set Bangladesh a target of 515 runs. Rishabh Pant scored 109 and Shubman Gill scored an unbeaten 119 for the Indian team, which came out to play from their yesterday's score of 81 for three wickets. Returning to Test cricket after a car accident in December 2022, Pant completed his sixth Test century in just 124 balls. He also equaled Mahendra Singh Dhoni's record for most Test centuries by an Indian wicketkeeper. Pant scored 109 runs which included 13 fours and four sixes. Earlier, the Bangladesh team was bowled out for 149 in the first innings on the second day.