The ‘prince’ of Indian cricket, Shubman Gill was dismissed in a ridiculous manner on Day 3 of the third Test against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Gill, hoping to continue his exploits in the second innings, after scoring 90-odd runs in the first innings, couldn’t continue his hot form. The top-order batter was clean bowled by New Zealand Ajaz Patel after failing to read the ball and left it to shatter his stumps. Seeing Gill being undone in such a manner, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar refused to mince his words.

Gill played for the spin but Ajaz’s delivery came straightened after hitting the pitch and hit the stumps. The India batter, stunned by the delivery, had a puzzled look on his face as he came to terms with what happened.

Gavaskar, doing commentary during the incident, didn’t shy away from imparting cricketing lessons to Gill.

“How many times have we seen Gill get out leaving the ball. To spinners, to fast bowlers… judgment of which ball to leave, which ball to play is something he will have to work on,” Gavaskar said.

None of the top-order batters manage to score runs, with the likes of Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan. etc. being dismissed for cheap scores. Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja forged a fine little partnership to start India’s rescue act before the latter was dismissed by Ajaz too.

At the end of the first session, the onus of guiding India to victory in the third and final Test of the series lied on the shoulders of Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar. 

India have already lost the series, having suffered defeats in the first two matches of the assignment. But, a victory in the Mumbai Test does boost their hopes of making it to the World Test Championship final.

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