Bro calm down: Shubman Gill requests Rishabh Pant to save his old bat

Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill scored centuries during Day 3 of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai on September 21 (Saturday). The duo added 167 for the fourth wicket and took India to a point where they could dictate terms in the game. When they had joined hands in the middle, the Indian team was struggling at 67/3 in the second innings.

However, there was a point during that partnership where Gill had to request Pant to save his bat from being damaged.  

“Nothing, I just told him not to knock my bat so far while middling it [in between the overs or during celebrating a boundary or a fifty of a hundred]. My bat is quite old, actually,” Gill told reporters during the end-of-the-day press conference in Chennai. 

“He was hitting my bat so hard, I was telling him, ‘You know I’m trying to save my bat’. And if he didn’t make a great connection while exchanging the customary knock of the bat, he would say, ‘No let’s do it again’. I was like, bro, calm down,” laughed the India number three while completing his statement. 

Apart from the friendly banter, Gill was happy to see Pant score his first Test century in over 600 days. This is the 26-year-old wicketkeeper’s first Test since a life-threatening accident in 2022 pushed him out of the game for nearly two years. 

“I have spent so much time with him on and off the field and watching him score his first fifty and first hundred after his comeback gives me so much pleasure. Having seen him working hard for that when he was coming back from injury, I think he also must be feeling very good about it,” said Gill. 

India are on the verge of winning the first Test as they need only six more Bangladeshi wickets. The visitors ended Day 3 at 158/4 with skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (51*) batting alongside the most experienced Bangladeshi batter Shakib Al Hasan (5*). They need to either bat the remaining two days to draw the game or score 357 more runs to win it. 

(Photo Courtesy: BCCI

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