Harbhajan Singh supports India’s opener after a poor performance in the third Test: “Shubman Gill’s attitude was right.”

The second day of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test saw Team India get off to a dismal start in their second innings. In the first innings, the Indian team was bowled out for 109 runs. Australia, meanwhile, had a commanding position at the end of Day 1 (156/4). The team’s return-making batsmen, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav, helped them overtake the visitors, who could only muster 41 runs in the morning session to build an 88-run advantage.

As India entered its second innings, the Rohit Sharma-led team had only managed to score 78 runs while losing four wickets. Before lunch, openers Rohit and Shubman Gill were unbeaten, however during the second session of the day, Gill cheaply sacrificed his wicket to Nathan Lyon. In the second innings, the rookie, who replaced KL Rahul, managed just 5 runs off of 15 deliveries.

Gill had demonstrated some promise in India’s opening inning by scoring 21 runs. Nonetheless, the cricketer received criticism for his dismissal in the second innings on numerous social media sites. Harbhajan Singh, a seasoned Indian spinner, supported the 23-year-old despite the criticism he has been facing. According to Harbhajan, the only way to play on such a field is to seek for huge shots rather than staying on defense for an extended period of time.

“You see, this is an easy game to play. Using defense to stay alive is impossible on this field. Pujara moved around on his feet the entire game. It won’t work if you believe you can wait out a spell and then score runs afterwards. On this surface, you can get dismissed even if you’re playing at 70 to 80, according to Harbhajan.

You must keep an eye out for opportunities to score runs. You must determine where you can obtain a 4. Given the current pitch conditions, Shubman’s decision to go for a six was the appropriate one because you can’t effectively defend on this pitch for very long,” he continued.