“He needs to do something about his defense” – Sanjay Manjrekar on under-fire Shubman Gill ahead of India vs England 2nd Test

Sanjay Manjrekar wants under-fire Shubman Gill to work on his foot movements amid his lean patch with the bat in Test cricket during the ongoing Test series between India and England. The former India cricketer pointed out that Gill has struggled against both pace and spin in red-ball cricket.

Manjrekar’s comments come as Gill has failed to score a half-century in his last 10 innings. The new No. 3 batter returned with scores of 23 and a duck, respectively, in the first Test against England in Hyderabad, which the hosts lost by 28 runs.

The cricketer-turned-commentator told ESPNCricinfo:

“Shubman Gill, how does he react to his failures? He needs to do something about his defense if he wants to be the prolific run-getter in the team at the Test level, both against swing and spin.”

Like Gill, Manjrekar added that Shreyas Iyer has also failed to deliver in the red-ball format. He said:

“That’s a cause for worry and that’s something that won’t be solved easily. These are uncontrollable for the team management, and the selectors.”

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“We saw the English batters take a safer approach to be aggressive” – Sanjay Manjrekar points out flaws in Shreyas Iyer’s batting ahead of 2nd Test vs England

Sanjay Manjrekar also pointed out flaws in under-fire Shreyas Iyer’s batting ahead of the second Test against England. He said that Iyer tries to take the aerial route, unlike England players, who tried to play reverse sweeps to play an aggressive brand of cricket.

Manjrekar’s reaction comes as Iyer too, has failed to score a half-century in his last 10 innings in Test cricket. The right-handed batter scored 35 and 13, respectively, in the opening Test.

Manjrekar said (via ESPNCricinfo):

“Shreyas Iyer seems to want to play the modern way, which is about hitting the way out of trouble, so be it. We saw the English batters take a safer approach to be aggressive.

He continued:

"He’s got to find one because just lofting balls down the pitch or towards mid-wicket is a lot more risky than playing the reverse sweeps and the switch reverse sweeps.

The 58-year-old added:

"Those are things that need to be worked on. That will be the team management will be wary of and concerned about and so am I.”

With KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja unavailable due to injuries, Gill and Iyer would be in the spotlight during the second Test in Vizag, which starts on Friday (February 2).

The hosts are already without Virat Kohli, who skipped the first two Tests due to personal reasons. Meanwhile, India have added Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar and Sourabh Kumar to their squad.