By Rahul Sadhu
Shubman Gill’s sensational performance in the second Test at Edgbaston has led to former England batter Jonathan Trott hailing the India captain’s performance in Birmingham, noting that Gill’s batting reminded him of Virat Kohli’s brilliance, emphasising his complete batting skills and ability to dominate bowlers. Gill scored 269 and 161 in both Indian innings and now has the second highest individual aggregate of runs in a single Test (430) behind former England skipper Graham Gooch. “Today, he showed how complete a batter he is. It reminded me of the previous Indian number four — almost a carbon copy of that genius. I don’t think he could’ve dreamed of a better start to his first two Tests on this tour. Sure, he’d have liked to win at Headingley, but now he’s hopefully set up a fantastic victory here tomorrow,” Trott told JioHotstar. “I honestly feel privileged to be here and witness that innings. I can’t recall him giving the English bowlers even a single chance. The way he shifted gears — hitting sixes at will — without slogging, just pure cricket shots, was something special,” added Trott, who currently coaches Afghanistan and guided the team to the T20 World Cup semi-final in 2024. Meanwhile, speaking on ‘Match Centre Live’, former India pacer Varun Aaron scrutinised England’s bowling attack and said: “A bowler like Chris Woakes is lacking pace. On a wicket like this, you need pace and line. He’s an excellent bowler, no doubt, but he’s coming back from an injury and may not be bowling at his peak pace. Even though he’s hitting good areas, there’s just not enough behind it. Most of the English bowlers are hit-the-deck bowlers, which suits this wicket to an extent — but they’ve bowled far too short. In the first Test, Stokes bowled well, but this time around, he hasn’t been as effective.” “So, if you look at the top three English bowlers, they just don’t seem suited to these conditions. On the other hand, Indian bowlers like Siraj and Akash Deep have been bowling at a healthy pace — consistently hitting the 140s — and have attacked the stumps throughout. Every time they’ve gone for the stumps, something has happened. They’ve hit the seam hard and used the crease well. It’s five very different bowlers operating in very different ways.”