Trinidad: Wasim Jaffer, a former India opener, thinks Shubman Gill needs to work on his game and make some changes if he wants to bat at number three for a long time in the Test side, especially in slow and low conditions.

For the current Test series against the West Indies, Gill offered to bat at number three, but hasn't quite found his footing at a position formerly held by Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Gill's opening innings at number three in the Dominica Test produced just six runs. He was only able to score ten runs during the first innings of the current Test at Port of Spain.

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“Away from India in SENA countries, he’s a good choice as number three. But in slow and low conditions, he has to alter his game and improve on it. We have seen this in this series against West Indies, that he likes to play the ball on the rise. If you see the innings of Virat Kohli, he has respected the conditions.”

“Gill would have liked to go out and score runs, but respecting the conditions is something Shubman has to learn and understand. With time, he will surely do it, but in away conditions like South Africa and Australia, he will enjoy batting at number three, where the ball comes on to the bat at a faster pace. But when it doesn’t happen, that’s where he has to adapt and change his game a little bit,” said Jaffer, in a select virtual media interaction.

Gill has always been considered as the batting order's potential captain for India in all formats. He was expected to bat at number three or in the middle of the order in Tests whenever the side's transition period began for some time.

Jaffer believed that anytime India played in conditions where there wasn't much available pace, a stroke-player like Gill needed to strengthen his game.

“First of all, it’s his personal choice. He sees it as that spot being empty and wants to bat there. Looking at the bigger picture, he wants to bat there for a longer period. But the start hasn’t been the way he wanted. In the last game, he got out to a good ball which spun from the front. But I was a little bit disappointed on how he got out in this match (at Trinidad) as he had a good chance to bat on a wicket which was good to bat on.”

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“He got a good start and I felt he played a little loose. He will obviously be disappointed with that dismissal and that’s where he needs to tighten up as he likes for the ball to come on to the bat. He’s playing white-ball cricket a lot and has gotten used to hitting on the rise.”

“He wants that pace on the ball, which he gets at white-ball cricket. But in red-ball cricket, on wickets like this, especially when playing in India, you cannot easily play on the rise. He needs to understand and improve his game for those conditions. When the ball comes on, he will be fine and we saw that when he played in Australia. So, he needs to tighten up that part of his game,” he further said.

According to Jaffer, other than the need to wait a bit for one's turn to come out to bat when the openers pile on large runs, batting at number three shouldn't pose a challenge for Gill. “I feel he’s confident in himself of batting at number three, which is his choice. I don’t think there’s much difference as an opener might get out in first/second over and he will be acting as an opener anyway.”

“Batting at one, two and three positions doesn’t make much of a difference; the only difference is when openers have a big partnership and you have to sit for two-three hours, which makes it a little bit difficult. Other than that, I don’t see much difference.”
Jaffer believes Pujara's re-entry into the team will be a challenging job, noting young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and the potential returns of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant after recovering from their respective ailments. The onus is now on Gill to try and make the most of batting at number three in Tests.

“As far as Pujara is concerned, things will become difficult for him. Going forward, there will be some difficulties for him and you have to look towards new guys as well in the World Test Championship cycle. Like, Shreyas Iyer will return and after some time, Rishabh Pant will be back.”

“On the other hand, Yashasvi Jaiswal is succeeding and Shubman Gill is someone who will play for long in all three formats. Keeping all of this in mind, it will be difficult for Cheteshwar Pujara to make a comeback into the national team,” he said at the last.

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