“He was not worried about his century at all” - Aakash Chopra takes veiled dig at Shreyas, Gill while praising Mitchell Marsh

Former India batter Aakash Chopra has taken an indirect dig at Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill while praising Mitchell Marsh for his impressive knock in the Rajkot ODI on Wednesday. He appreciated the Australia batter for not slowing down his scoring rate despite approaching his century.

Marsh top-scored for Australia with 96 off 84 balls as the visitors posted 352/7 and then held India to 286, registering a consolation win by 66 runs. The Aussies opener batter slammed 13 fours and three sixes before being dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav.

In the second ODI in Indore, Shreyas and Gill scored hundreds but slowed down considerably as they approached their respective landmarks.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra analyzed Australia’s excellent batting effort [4:10] in Indore.

“Australia batted first after winning the toss and hammered India on a very flat pitch. Jasprit Bumrah conceding 51 runs in his first five overs. It doesn’t happen often. [Mohammed] Siraj and Prasidh Krishna were also expensive. The top four scored half-centuries. Any one of them could have hit hundreds,” Chopra said.

“Mitchell Marsh came very close. One thing you would have noticed in his batting is that he did not slow down. He was not worried about his century at all and just wanted to keep hitting. He was not bothered about getting out,” the former opener continued.

While Marsh was dismissed for 96, Steven Smith scored 74, Marnus Labuschagne contributed 72 and David Warner 56.

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Chopra was critical of Shreyas and Gill after Indore win

While India registered a comprehensive 99-run win [DLS method] in the second ODI in Indore, Chopra had questioned Shreyas and Gill for slowing down their scoring as they approached their respective hundreds.

He said on his YouTube channel:

“The interesting part of the partnership was that between 20 and 30 overs, only 52 runs were scored. We did not lose any wickets and it was not as if Australia had started bowling really well. Both batters were approaching their respective hundreds and took their time, so too many runs did not come during that period."

“In this match, it’s okay. Shreyas Iyer is coming back from injury and wants to score runs. When you look back, you can say that India won by 99 runs. But the effort should be to maximize the balls as much as possible. Instead of 52, if we had scored 70-75 runs in the 20-30 over period, India’s score would have been 425,” Chopra had opined.

Shreyas ended up scoring 105 off 90 balls, while Gill hit 104 off 97 as India ended up posting 399/5.