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Parthiv Patel believes Shubman Gill will be a crucial player for India at the No. 3 position in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The former player pointed out that India have done well Down Under when the likes of Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara have fired at No. 3.
India are currently playing New Zealand in a three-match Test series at home. Rohit Sharma and company will then travel to Australia to play five Tests, with the first game starting in Perth on November 22.
During a discussion on Colors Cineplex, Patel was asked about Gill's importance to India at No. 3, heading into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"Whenever India have done well in Australia, the No. 3 batter's performance has been very important, the way Rahul Dravid was batting in 2003-04 and Cheteshwar Pujara's contribution was immense in the last two series India won there. So No. 3 becomes a very important position," he responded.
The former India wicketkeeper-batter noted that the 25-year-old stylish batter did well during the last Test tour of Australia, albeit as an opener.
"Shubman Gill has shown that he has the capability to score runs in Australia, although all those runs came as an opener. The Gabba Test we won, every time Rishabh Pant's 89 runs are talked about but Shubman Gill also scored 92 (91) runs as an opener. So he knows that he can bat under pressure," Patel observed.
Gill amassed 259 runs at an average of 51.80 in six innings as an opener in India's 2020-21 tour of Australia. He played a 91-run knock in the second innings in the visitors' series-clinching win in the final Test in Brisbane.
"He knows that he is going as a senior player" - Parthiv Patel on Shubman Gill
In the same discussion, Parthiv Patel pointed out that Shubman Gill will be expected to play substantial knocks at the pivotal No. 3 position considering that he is on his second Test tour of Australia.
"The way his approach has been recently and the way he has been talking, he knows that he is going as a senior player. This is your second tour. So the expectation will increase even further. No. 3 and No. 4 are the backbone. So when Shubman Gill bats at No. 3, the expectation from him will be to score big runs," he said.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the right-handed batter needs to fire in the first innings.
"As Aakash (Chopra) said, the first-innings runs matter a lot. When an overseas team comes to India, you say they need to score runs in the first innings. Similarly, when the Indian team goes overseas, you need to score runs in the first innings," Patel reasoned.
Gill has fared much better in India's second innings in his 27-Test career thus far. While he has aggregated 783 runs at an underwhelming average of 29.00 in 27 knocks in the first innings, he has amassed 873 runs at an impressive average of 48.50 in 23 hits in the second essay.
