ENG vs IND | Twitter amused as Carse throws Gill off with mind games and nearly ends up with his wicket

Last Wednesday at 7:43 PM

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Shubman Gill's alert start for India against England at Edgbaston was nearly undone by Brydon Carse

Test cricket is played as much in the mind as on the ground, each seemingly innocuous delivery the part of an elaborate set-up to try and pry a batter's wicket. Brydon Carse, however, just needed one slight change in his action to induce doubt into Shubman Gill's mind, a plan that nearly paid off.

‌India recovered well from the early loss of KL Rahul on Day 1 of the second Test against England at Edgbaston as they headed into Lunch at 92/2, with Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring a quick half-century while Shubman Gill held guard having walked in shortly before the break. The duo had joined forces in a similar situation in the first Test at Headingley as well, where they had then stitched together a double-century partnership by scoring a ton each to take the visitors into ascendancy. With the Birmingham deck doing little to trouble batters, the situation seemed ripe for a repeat of the same, forcing Brydon Carse to adopt out of the box ideas in the hope of breaking the stand before it could do too much damage.

Carse operated along tight lines and length post the 40-minute break but without success and had three balls remaining in the final over of his spell when Gill took the strike. The right-arm quick steamed in as usual but just before he arrived at the popping crease, Carse inexplicably extended his left-arm outwards as if pointing to something with his index favour. Not one to fall into such traps, Gill quickly moved away from the mark midway through his trigger movement, even as Carse sent a short pithced delivery hurling over the stumps. While the distraction came across as silly initially, it nearly worked in breaking Gill's focus as the very next ball the batter was caught plumb in front of the wicket by an overpitched inswinger. Fortunately for the Indian skipper, he had managed to get an inside edge with his attempted drive, and duly survived an England review.

Twitterati was both impressed and agitated at the left-field tactics at play.

What was that from Carse?

— BavumaTheKing Temba (@bavumathek83578)

True that!

no feeling of deja vu but felt like mitchell starc- pollard
— shah zeeshan (@shahzeeshan33)

That was some mind game there!

Brydon Carse thought he could fool Shubman Gill doing this, the thing he didn't know is that only Gautam Gambhir has the right to fool Shubman Gill.
— Vipul 🇮🇳 (@Vipul_Espeaks)

Yupe!

The perfect balance of strength and skill! 😎

Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal are controlling the tempo of the game in Team India's favour! 🤩

Will they build a big partnership on Day 1? ❤ 👉 2nd TEST, Day 1 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar ➡
— जै जनसेना वर्मा lజై జనసేన వర్మ | 🛕🚩🇮🇳🦚🐯✊ (@KeanuReeveSpeed)

Which he is!

Shubman Gill looks so damn elegant at the crease.
— Austin 3:16 (@Lloydbhudda)

LOL!

Yashasvi Jaiswal was surprised that a leg slip was placed for him.

He was pointing towards Shubman Gill that he didn't tell him that. That's your responsibility, man.
— Vipul 🇮🇳 (@Vipul_Espeaks)

What? xD xD