Alastair Cook lauds star India batter after his brilliant performance in 2nd Test against England

Shubman Gill has been one of the rising stars of Indian cricket in recent times. The 24-year-old has been the only batter to score over 2000 runs in a calendar year. Gill has now been playing in a different position in the Test cricket for the side at No.3. The young batter has struggled with his form in the longest format of the game as he could not convert the starts he was getting. But the Men in Blue management backed him and he responded brilliantly. 

In the 2nd Test against England in the second innings, Gill scored a brilliant hundred. On Day 3, James Anderson dismissed Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Then, Gill began India's fightback, which started on a shaky note, but he started to get his flow as soon as he got settled. The home side ended up scoring 255 in their second innings and allowing visitors to chase a target of 399 runs.

Several batters have lauded the innings of the young batter with former England captain Alastair Cook believing that the batter has a lot of pressure under his belt and needs to deal with that pressure as Virat Kohli and Sachin did at younger stages.

Gill played beautifully: Alaister Cook

Lauding Gill's knock, Cook told TNT Sports, "Gill played beautifully. He has serious talent… and there was probably quite a lot of pressure on his shoulders. At the World Cup [in India], all the billboards were of Kohli, but he’s the next one they want to step into his shoes. That’s a big thing to have the pressure of a country the size of India on your shoulders. As a young talent, that’s something that the likes of Tendulkar and Kohli have dealt with… and he now has to learn to deal with it." 

Cook added, "What we’ve seen today is just how talented he is, the shots he has, and we’re definitely going to see him the rest of this series. He was out of form, hadn’t scored many runs, and there’s Rahul and Kohli to come back into the side, but he’s made sure now that the selectors can’t ignore him."