• Source:PTI
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England vs India Test Series: India captain Shubman Gill was extremely consistent with his thought process, but more importantly, he respected the "good balls" to amass a record-breaking 754 runs against England, said Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday.

While Gill (754 runs) missed breaking Sunil Gavaskar's record of most runs for any Indian in a bilateral Test series (774), he did go past the latter's record of most runs for an India captain in a series (732). The young batter now stands second behind Sir Don Bradman (810 runs) in the all-time captains' chart.

"Shubman batted brilliantly throughout the series. He looked calm, composed and organised," Tendulkar said in a series of videos posted on Reddit. "When it comes to quality batting, you've got to have a clear head and a game plan -- how you're going to build your innings -- and he was extremely consistent as far as his thought process was concerned, because it reflects on your footwork."

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"If you're not clear in your head, your body doesn't respond accordingly. His body was responding brilliantly. He looked so much in control. He had so much time to play the ball, and there was precision to his footwork,” he added.

Tendulkar picked Gill's ability to react to "good balls" as a standout factor.

"The most important thing that I noticed was the respect for a good ball, where the tendency sometimes is to push the ball on the front foot, even if it's not close to your foot," he said.

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"He was able to defend there and consistently defend well on the front foot. If you look at how he batted throughout the series, I felt that his front-foot defence was solid. His ability to leave the ball was very good. Overall, shot selection was very, very good and precise."

 

Tendulkar lauds Siraj's approach

Tendulkar praised Mohammed Siraj, who bowled India to a series-levelling win at The Oval in the final Test and claimed 23 wickets while featuring in each of the five matches, as "unbelievable".

"Unbelievable. Superb approach. I like his attitude,” Tendulkar said.

"I love the spring in his legs. If you don't look at the scoreboard and you just look at his body language, you will not be able to make out whether it is on a day Siraj has taken five wickets or has got nothing – the body language is the same."

"(Siraj's) attitude and approach are the same. If a fast bowler is constantly in your face like that, no batsman likes that,” Tendulkar said.