Shubman Gill’s defiant hundred could not defy a defeat at the hands of Karnataka, but he illustrated the virtues to labour out of a lean run. Among the Test stalwarts returning to the domestic field, he was the lone centurion. The next best was Ravindra Jadeja’s 38 in the first innings against Delhi in Rajkot. Jadeja aside, all others ended up on the losing side, as Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal watched Jammu and Kashmir extend their red-ball agony with a five-wicket victory. Shubman Gill lbw Shreyas Gopal 102 (171b) For 171 balls, Shubman Gill tried to delay the inevitable. Erasing a deficit of 425 runs was cruelly impossible against Karnataka’s disciplined bowling firm. But Gill waged a lonely battle. He gritted out for much of his knock, his first 50 runs consuming 119 balls. His stickability had been criticised in the tour of Australia, facing only 163 balls across five innings. Apart from the vulnerabilities of his technique that inhibits the weight transfer on to his front foot, his tenacity, or the lack of …