Once he had waded through the early debris of doubt, Shubman Gill’s innings against England was as fresh as a spring bouquet sprigged with narcissi. Yet, when he reached his hundred, there was no sign of a Yashasvi Jaiswal-style double handed salute of delight to the crowd. A quiet waft of the bat and a puffed-cheeked sigh of relief was all he was willing to give.
Gill had been lucky to make it through the early onslaught from England’s bowlers on a cooler Visakhapatnam morning. Jimmy Anderson nipped the top of Rohit Sharma’s off-stump in his first over, removed Jaiswal in his next, and Gill looked as if he would inevitably follow, poking about like someone batting away brambles with a bread stick.
