Former Australia captain and Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting, who was doing commentary, on Day 1 of the pink ball Test in Adelaide, spoke about Prithvi Shaw’s weakness moments before he was dismissed. India and Australia kick started their four-match Test series with the Day/Night game in Adelaide, the only on Virat Kohli is available for.
It happened in the first over of the day when play began with Mitchell Starc taking the new ball for Australia and Shaw facing up for India.
Ponting, who coached Shaw at the Delhi Capitals team in the IPL, explained how he has a tendency to leave a gap between bat and pad while playing in-swinging deliveries.
Quite surpisingly, that was exactly how it panned out on the second ball of the over as Shaw fell for a duck.
“If he does have a chink in his armour it’s the ball which does come back into him…
“Quite often leaves a big gap between bat and pad and that’s where the Aussies will target.”
In the build up to the Tests, former cricketers Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar had both picked Shubman Gill as their choice for Mayank Agarwal’s partner at the top of the order after his assured and elegant half century in the pink ball warm-up game in Sydney. Gill had batted at number 3 in that contest.
"I think Shubman Gill should open with Mayank for the first Test match because he's shown good form," Gavaskar said. “Allan Border was there for the games (practice games), (and) was very impressed with what he saw from Shubman Gill. So I would imagine that he should open with Mayank Agarwal for the first Test."
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