Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavakar has decoded the reason behind Shubman Gill’s failures in the IPL 2021 in the build-up to the World Test Championship final against New Zealand. Gill has been included in the Indian squad for the WTC final and the Test series against England thereafter. he played as the first-choice opener in Australia and the England Test series. While he tasted success in Australia, he failed to score runs against England in Indian conditions. 

Playing his first-ever Test series on home soil, the 21-year-old youngster fell like nine pins in the four Tests versus England — with scores of 29, 50, 0, 14, 11, 15*, 0. To add to his woes, he managed only 132 runs in 7 outings for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the now-indefinitely-postponed IPL 2021 edition. 

Ahead of the WTC final Sunil Gavaskar has spoken about Shubman Gill’s failures which has made former cricketers question his mental balance in the game a few times. 

“I think what I feel about Shubman Gill is that suddenly, the pressure of expectation is getting to him. Before this, it was different. He was just a young promising newcomer, but now with the performances in Australia, the expectation is that he is going to score, and maybe that pressure of expectation is weighing him down,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

Gavaskar further said that Gill has got to learn from his mistakes and play freely. He further said that Gill has to lighten the weight of expectations from his shoulders and if he does that he can play freely and the runs will come. 

Shubman Gill Is Getting Himself Out: Sunil Gavaskar

 “He just needs to relax. He is just a 21-year-old kid. There will be failures and he has to learn from those failures. He’s just got to open and play freely, without worrying about expectations. The runs will come if he plays his natural game. Trying to play across the line and trying to score off every delivery because of the pressure of expectation, he’s actually getting himself out” Gavaskar further opined. 

Shubman Gill was chosen over the in-form Prithvi Shaw in the Indian squad for the WTC final. Gill scored a hefty amount of runs in domestic cricket and the IPL 2021 as well. Meanwhile, Gill will be eager to prove his critics wrong in the big final. 

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