‘You’ll be scrutinized the most when you play as an opener’: Aakash Chopra on India star batter’s poor form
The former cricketer, now a commentator, emphasized that the openers face the most scrutiny due to their potential to score higher runs.
Former opener Aakash Chopra believes that Shubman Gill struggles to find his rhythm, particularly on slower pitches, which has resulted in his disappointing performance during the ongoing West Indies tour. Despite an impressive IPL 2023 campaign where he claimed the Orange Cap, Gill has failed to meet expectations, managing only one score of 50 or more throughout the tour. Furthermore, he was unable to make a significant impact during the World Test Championship Final.
Chopra also expressed his disappointment with Gill’s underwhelming performance on the ongoing tour, highlighting the fact that he was hailed as a king following his exceptional IPL 2023 performance, but has since struggled to replicate that success.
“At this point in time, the problem is with Shubman Gill’s form. During the IPL, I read in many places that he is no longer the prince but the king. But after that, there was the WTC final, he didn’t score too many runs there, played two Test matches against the West Indies, didn’t score runs there,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Chopra suggested that Shubman had difficulties performing on slow surfaces, as he struggled to find his rhythm.
“Then he played three ODIs, where he scored one half-century and a score of 34. He has single-digit scores in all three T20Is. It seems like he hasn’t scored runs at all on this West Indies tour. I feel there is one thing with him for sure – when the pitches are slightly slow, he will find it difficult to find his rhythm,” he added.
The former cricketer, now a commentator, emphasized that the openers face the most scrutiny due to their potential to score higher runs. Shubman must bear this in mind.
“He will have to look into this because whenever you play as an opener, especially in white-ball cricket, you will be scrutinized the most. You will have the best opportunity to score runs but will be scrutinized the most as well. It gets highlighted very quickly when you don’t score runs,” he added.
Chopra suggested that if Kishan is dropped from the XI in the third T20I, Shubman should also face the same consequence if the management maintains consistency.
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