“There was moisture beneath the surface. Mayank took some time to get into the groove and once he was in the groove, he capitalised by putting pressure on spinners,” Tendulkar told PTI. “The hallmark of Mayank’s innings was that he was able to punish good deliveries too. When a bowler knows a batter can punish your good deliveries, then there is an element of doubt in him.
“What if the batter steps out and hits you and all those things go in bowler’s head and disturb his rhythm.”
So does Tendulkar believe that Gill has the technique to do well in South Africa if he bats in middle order?
But does staying “beside the line of the ball” become more advantageous on these surfaces for a batter?
“When he was playing the new ball [in Australia], I think he was behind the line and when the ball got old, he was marginally beside the line as he got to know how much the ball was swinging, how the field is set,” Tendulkar explained. “Accordingly, you decide whether you need to be behind the line to play on the on-side or stay beside the line and hit on the off side.”
However, Tendulkar wants Gill to convert his starts and is confident that he will do that consistently sooner than later.
“Shubman has started well and shown a lot of promise. The way he builds his innings, he has been good so far. Just that he needs to go further and convert those 40s into big scores.”
He doesn’t want Gill to take too much stress about three-figure marks.
“Once you get into that squad, it is about how hungry you are for bigger scores which I am sure he is. He needs to just convert those starts and not lose concentration. Both in Kanpur and Mumbai, he got a good deliveries. He is on a learning curve and will definitely take lessons.”
“I thought Shreyas was fantastic and made most of the opportunities he got, at one stage the scoreboard wasn’t looking that good and he came up with a gem of an innings and resulted in India almost winning the Test. Both his knocks were important,” he said. “I am sure anxiety levels were there but it helped that he had made his T20 debut quite some time ago and these kinds of things ease up your pressure and it allows you to play your natural game.
“Early on, he must have felt nerves and once he connected, he must have felt more confident.”
