Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra cautioned Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill for slowing down the scoring rate while they were near their respective hundreds in the second ODI against Australia in Indore on Sunday. Chopra again shared that while the deceleration did not impact the game, the efforts of batters in the limited-overs game should be to maximize the deliveries on offer as well. However, India beat Australia by 99 runs [DLS method] in the second ODI in Indore as well.

He said on his YouTube channel: “Gill was quiet at the start and the storm came from the other end. 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.”

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Following Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill’s dismissal, captain KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav accelerated the innings. While KL Rahul scored 52 off 38, Suryakumar scored an unbeaten 72 off 37 balls as well. With his sixth ODI hundred on Sunday, Gill carried on his sublime form in international cricket.

“Shubman Gill likes this ground a lot as well. In the last match he played here, he had scored a hundred. He also features in the top two partnerships here – the first with Rohit and the second now with Shreyas Iyer. This guy knows the white ball template and I have no doubt he is the future world superstar in the batting department,” Aakash Chopra concluded.