Shubman Gill's knock in the second innings in Vizag was about winning the battle with himself ©AFP
Shubman Gill played a whole compilation of sweep shots one can think of in the Vizag nets: the full-blooded one in front of square, the aerial one behind, the lap sweep, the reverse sweep. After playing five dot balls at the start of his second innings in the Test match, he played one he hadn't quite budgeted for in his training: a half-squat, half-sweep, half-pull that evaded the reach of the leaping mid-wicket fielder to find the boundary.
It was a very Gill shot in that he was perhaps premeditating a sweep on line when Tom Hartley delivered the short ball. So Gill offered a response that was all his own. Think back to the short-arm jab he plays when in form with an almost vertical-bat against fast bowling that is fuller than the short ball but still shorter than a good length.
It is an oversimplification to look at one shot as a sign of a liberated batter but the 24-year-old did attribute his third Test century to "staying true to who you are and how you have gotten there".
Test cricket, in his previous 13 innings before today, began giving him something of an identity crisis. Batting became a less harmonious system of moving parts once the calendar flipped into 2024. Because, for most of last year, he seemed infallible, indefatigable and inevitable. Whatever the format.
And then without notice, a lean run began. Then there were dismissals: to spin and to pace, to both while pushing forward with hard hands in defence and then LBW while defending with bat next to pad. When you shine as brightly as Gill did, the spotlight on the failure was bound to be harsher. A young player can start double-guessing and over-analysing.
For a while now, India have scheduled only optional practice sessions on the day before a game. Most batters prefer not to indulge in elaborate nets a day out from a Test, both to not over exert and also because players have their preparations in place by then and don't want to let bad habits creep into their system at the 11th hour. Only fringe players looking to break in and those needing specific top-ups typically turn up.
Gill was one of the few batters to practice on both days before this Vizag Test. The objective, it seemed, was to find better, proactive solutions against spin. The first day involved trying out the aforementioned sweep shots as well as the chip-and-charge. The second day was less theatrical but arguably one of his better recent ones in defence as he met deliveries under his eyes. When he was done, he ferried over two net bowlers to the far end of the training facility and knocked more deliveries.
That wasn't all. At the end of the second day's play, after his teammates had retired into the dressing room basking in a
