India captain Shubman Gill’s participation in the Kolkata Test and in the remainder of the Test series against South Africa is in doubt after he was hospitalised with a neck spasm. Having faced three deliveries, Gill walked off the field and was later taken a local hospital after the end of the day’s play. Following further scans, it was decided that he would spend the night at the hospital as a precautionary measure.
As India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel revealed, Gill is understood to have woken up with a neck spasm. And after he retired hurt, there were visuals of him doing neck exercise on Saturday morning as part of his warm-up drills. And in the early stages of the play, Gill went off injured after playing just three balls. Gill, who played a sweep shot to get a boundary, felt discomfort as soon as he stood up to his regular stance.
Live visuals showed the India captain looking pretty stiff and holding his neck as he walked off the field as wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant replaced him in the middle. The BCCI later shared an update revealing that the 26-year-old Gill had suffered a spasm. “Shubman Gill has a neck spasm and is being monitored by the BCCI medical team. A decision on his participation today will be taken as per his progress,” the BCCI said in an update during the day but it’s not clear if he will be able to take further part in this match. Rishabh Pant, the vice captain, led the side in the field during South Africa’s second innings.
Morkel later said in the press conference it might have been just due to a bad night’s sleep and not his workload. “Yeah, I think we first need to determine how he got the neck stiffness, maybe just a bad night’s sleep. I don’t think it’s, or we can put it down to the load,” Morkel said, when asked if Gill’s packed multi-format calendar was a factor. “He is a very fit guy; he looks after himself very well. So, it’s just unfortunate this morning that he woke up with a stiff neck and that carried in into the day. Bad timing.”
This is not the first time Gill has suffered a neck spasm. Last year, during the home series against New Zealand, he complained of neck stiffness and missed the first Test at Bengaluru.
Harmer’s resurgence
On Day 2, South African spinner Simon Harmer played the perfect puppet master when he had the India batters on a string during the second day of the Eden Gardens Test match on Saturday. With South Africa getting skittled out for 159 in their first innings, India had all ammunition to post a sizable lead but ended up just 30 runs ahead. The architect of their downfall was Harmer, a player who had made his return to the Proteas team in 2022 for the first time since signing a Kolpak deal with England County club Essex in 2016. That deal had effectively ruled him out from getting selected for South Africa for the duration of the contract. With the advent of Brexit, the rule was ended in English cricket and Harmer became eligible for selection for his country again.
“In 2015 when I was dropped from the national side, that was when I realized I wasn’t good enough. I came back to India in 2016 to work with Umesh Patwal in Mumbai and I think I have discovered a lot about spin bowling that I didn’t know and that was probably the point of my career that gave me an ambition to get better and develop and become a decent spinner,” Harmer said after the day’s play.
Story continues below this ad
“2015, I was quite new to Test cricket and R Ashwin was bowling like a jet and I think he took close to 40 wickets in that series. The expectation that I needed to do the same and dealing with that and putting myself under even more pressure. Now, I think I am a lot more confident in my ability. And I don’t have as many doubts that I had back then,” he added.
