Shubman Gill addresses elephant in the room after India collapse in chase of 193: 'Jadeja is experienced, didn't want…'
Jadeja added 30 runs with Nitish Reddy, 35 with Jasprit Bumrah, and another 23 with Siraj, which brought them close but not enough, as India were bowled out for 170. Jadeja did brilliantly to bat as well as he did with the tail, but his innings was also surrounded by a huge 'what if'. Could he have farmed the strike a lot more to his partners? Could he have shown a little more intent and attempted more boundaries? Former India head coach Ravi Shastri was very vocal about Jadeja's approach, constantly expressing his desire to see the India all-rounder break free. When asked if there's anything different that Jadeja could have done, India captain Shubman Gill's reply was straightforward.
Also Read: Siraj inconsolable, Jadeja shattered after India's heartbreak at Lord's; Root, Stokes forget beef to go lift them up
"He (Jadeja) is very experienced; didn't want to give him any message. I think he was batting really well with the tail and I just wanted him and the tailenders to bat as long as possible," Gill said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Shubman Gill mighty proud of India's fight
Gill would take heart from the fact that India fought tooth and nail to work the result in their favour. When 7 wickets went down inside 100, they could have easily thrown in the towel or played for a draw. But Jadeja, Siraj, Nitish Reddy and Bumrah kept at it, to the extent that the margin of runs required kept coming down. 90 to 70, 70 to 30, 30 to less than 20, even. Had that ball not trickled onto the stumps after hitting Siraj's bat, who knows, India could have scripted arguably their greatest heist, even trumping Gabba. In a matter of 3 hours, what could have ended up being a meek surrender became known as a fight for the ages, and Gill couldn't be prouder of the effort. Surely, he would have expected a lot more from India's in-form top order, but the law of averages is real.
"Extremely proud. At one point, we thought if we get a lead of 80-100 that might be crucial for us, because we knew the fifth day on this wicket might not be that easy to chase 150-200, so we were thinking if we can get a lead of 80 runs, we would be in a good position. I think the last one hour (yesterday), we could have applied ourselves a bit better, especially the last 2 wickets that fell. And even this morning, the way they came out with the plans, we were hoping for one 50-run partnership and if we had gotten one 50-run partnership in the top order, then things would have been easier for us," added the India captain.
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