Former India player Sunil Gavaskar has opined on Shubman Gill’s performance in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. After missing the first Test due to a finger injury, he was recalled to the playing XI for the pink-ball contest against the Pat Cummins-led team. However, he couldn’t do much as Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc made him dance on their tunes. He admitted that reading the ball from the hand of Starc was difficult and it resulted in his departure.

With the team returning to red-ball cricket at the Gabba in Brisbane, Gill was expected to be among the runs, but he again failed to go past the left-arm speedster, scoring just 1 run. The wide ball by Starc could have been left easily, but the young batter tried to play a stroke and was caught by Mitchell Marsh in the gully region. Gavaskar feels that Gill’s habit of playing too many shots early in his innings is costing him in Australia.

“I know there is a lot of talk happening about the intent and going bang, bang, and bang, He batted well in the series against Bangladesh and some of the other teams, but he will have to understand that the pitches and conditions are different in Australia and you will have to execute your plans accordingly.

“You have to keep your image of a dasher and ego in the dressing room as that is not going to work over here. You should spend time in the middle, and when you reach 50 or 60 runs, you can play all the shots you have in your batting arsenal,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

Australia posted 445 in their innings, and India lost four wickets with not even fifty runs on the board. Yashasvi Jaiswal (4), Gill (1), Virat Kohli (3) and Rishabh Pant (9)0 were back in the dressing room.