Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens
Shubman Gill went a little too hard at Simon Harmer’s delivery. A slog-sweep went over backward square all right, but the India captain hurt himself in the process. He held his neck and grimaced in pain. Eventually, he retired hurt.
It was a bit of an anti-climax. A Saturday morning crowd at Eden Gardens greeted Gill with loud cheers as he walked out to bat at the fall of Washington Sundar’s wicket. Resuming on overnight 37/1, the southpaw, along with KL Rahul, took India’s score to 75 without any discernible trouble. A 57-run second wicket partnership was consolidating India’s position in the first Test. As Jasprit Bumrah told reporters after the first day’s play, patience would be the key on this pitch. Both Rahul and Washington were ready to bide their time in the middle. The latter, at No. 3, looked pretty compact, expectedly, until Harmer bowled a beauty. The ball drew Washington forward, spun to take the outside edge to Aiden Markram at first slip.
The loudest cheers were reserved for Rishabh Pant, but the wicketkeeper-batsman had a reprieve on 1, when Markram failed to hold on to a sharp chance off Maharaj. Pant celebrated it by dancing down the track next ball and hitting a six.
As for Markram, he atoned for his error by taking a brilliant catch to dismiss Rahul off Maharaj. The pitch has started to play tricky again. More importantly, though, from India’s perspective, an update on Gill’s injury is eagerly awaited.
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