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India's Shubman Gill and England's Zak Crawley have words at the end of the third day during the third cricket test match between England and India at Lord's cricket ground in London, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar said that captain Shubman Gill’s on-field confrontation with England opener Zak Crawley in the end of Day 3 of the Lord’s Test might have had an effect on his batting in the 4th innings. According to Manjrekar, Gill looked tentative coming into bat when India were chasing 193 to win on Day 4.
“when he came into bat on Day 4, I expected England to give him back because he lost his temper. And all that is ok, it happens. But the thing with Virat Kohli was that he would get even more fired up and become a better batter. What disappointed me with Shubman Gill and that is why I was wondering, where is Shubman Gill heading? Because that seemed like it didn’t have the right effect on Shubman Gill the batter. He came out looking very tentative and, you know, these days we are privy to the stump mic and we could hear the things being said and there were some personal attacks made,” Manjrekar said on a video on ESPNCricinfo.
“This could be a new experience for Shubman Gill because these days, as you can see, you know, with Indian players, there’s mostly friendly reception from a lot of foreign teams. So this was new territory. And he looked tentative and wasn’t up for it and we saw it pan out in the way he batted. But these were good deliveries which he has negotiated beautifully through his marathon run as a batter through the series and suddenly he was missing those balls. There was a review situation as well. Next ball, there was a leg before. Going through Shubman Gill’s defence has been hard work. He has hardly missed a ball, the control percentage has been brilliant and suddenly in about 9 deliveries, he has missed 4. and I have no doubt there is a connection there” Manjrekar added.
The former India batter also said that Gill hadn’t shown his aggressive side before he was captain and compared him to Virat Kohli who Manjrekar said already had that fiery side to him with or without the captain’s armband.
“And just to extend to that point, if Shubman Gill had that kind of a fiery side to him, we would have seen it a little earlier. You don’t have to show it when you’re captain. Or did he show it because he’s got this confidence now that he’s won a Test match and he’s got so many runs?” he said
“Because with Virat Kohli, you could see that he was ready for a scrap. He was always waiting to get in the thick of things. Even with Dhoni, when he wasn’t a captain, you could see him coming in there. So that was a trait that we’d seen even before he was captain. With Shubman Gill, I’ve never seen it before,” he added.
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