New Delhi: India suffered a top order failure in their opening Test against Sri Lanka in Chennai on Thursday. The home team were asked to bat in swinging conditions of the Chepauk Stadium and were in trouble early on.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (6) was the first batter to depart followed by Shubman Gill (0) and then Virat Kohli (6) as Hasan Mahmud wrecked the star studded batting line-up.
India were reduced to 34/3 in the 10th over with Gill joining Kohli in an unwanted list of ducks after his eight-ball duck.
The No.3 batter didn’t look comfortable during his short stay at the crease. Bangladesh set up a leg side trap for him and lured him into knicking to keeper Litton Das down the leg side.
Mahmud was consistent with the leg side line to Gill and was rewarded in the third ball of the eighth over when an attempted flick was mistimed and the fine edge landed in the gloves of Das.
It meant Gill was out for a duck for the third time in home Tests to join team-mate Virat Kohli in an unwanted list. The right hander also became the sixth Indian batter to be dismissed for three or more ducks in a calendar year.
Former all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath is on top of the list with five dismissals for zero in 1983, followed by Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (1969), Dilip Vengsarkar (1979), Vinod Kambli (1994) and Kohli (2021).
Against England in a five-match series at the beginning of the year, Gill was dismissed for nought two times, the first of which was in the second innings in Hyderabad, followed by the other in the first innings at Rajkot.
He also scored two centuries and as many fifties in the series as India won 4-1.
Indian batters with three or more home Test ducks in a calendar year
Mohinder Amarnath (1983)
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (1969)
Dilip Vengsarkar (1979)
Vinod Kambli (1994)
Virat Kohli (2021)
Shubman Gill (2024)
Shubman Gill was out for a duck for the third time in home Tests to join team-mate Virat Kohli in an unwanted list of Indian batters, in the opening day of the first match against Bangladesh Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
