Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar lauded Shubman Gill on Day 2 of the Mumbai Test match. Speaking on ESPNcricinfo after the day’s play, Manjrekar thanked Gill for caring about Test cricket. The young India batter showed incredible grit on Saturday to fight through tough batting conditions.

Gill scored 90 runs off 146 balls and stabilised the Indian innings alongside Rishabh Pant. Gill kept rotating the strike as Pant went berserk and slowly got to his fifty. The biggest change in Gill’s batting from Pune was the way he tackled the spin attack and those small changes within the series thrilled the likes of Simon Doull. He has changed his trigger movement against spin by taking a half step against the bowlers.

Gill now has 805 runs in 10 Tests this year and has an average above 50. With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the horizon, Gill’s constantly improving batting will be key and it will be crucial during the run-chase as well.

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Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo that despite being a new-age star, Gill had that fighting mentality in red-ball cricket.

“For a guy who is a gifted white-ball player, a brand in IPL, Shubman Gill really cares for Test cricket. He wants to succeed in Test matches, and we can see that in the way he played. Still work to do against left arm spin but he just wanted to hang in there. With just sheer grit it was great to see that big stars of today’s generation caring about Test cricket,” Manjrekar said.

Earlier in the Pune Test match, Gill’s first in the series, Manjrekar had slammed the batter for his inability to play spin bowling. In that game, India had been bowled out for 245 runs despite being 120/2 at one point in time.

“Shubman Gill clearly does not have the feel for spinners. You know batters, who can work with their footwork instinctively, he clearly is under pressure when he is playing spinners on turning pitches,” Manjrekar had said.

On Saturday, India fared better. After closing the day at 86/4, India managed to put up a respectable total of 263 runs. At the end of Day 3 in the Mumbai Test match, New Zealand had taken a lead of 143 runs, and still had one wicket in hand.