Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned how team management will utilize Shubman Gill the best going forward. The youngster has done well both as an opener and at No. 3. Gill played a 130 off only 97 deliveries as Team India put up a decent score of 289/8 in the third ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare on Monday, August 22. Zimbabwe were almost on the verge of winning but the visitors sealed the deal by a narrow margin of 13 runs.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Gill as his ‘Player of the Match,’ saying: “My ‘Player of the Match’ has to be Shubman Gill. He won all our hearts, struck his first international century. He has done his job, India won the match as well, won the series 3-0, but the question that will come is: How will the Indian team management use Shubman Gill properly? Because the guy is ready.”
Chopra added: “He scored runs when you made him open and he did that even when you didn’t make him open. He is saying you can make him bat anywhere, played 97 balls in total and scored 130 runs. The truth is that the century was going to be scored, the question was when and not if it will be scored because the guy has class.”
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However, Shubman Gill missed out on an international hundred on a few of occasions in the past when he was dismissed for 91 in the Brisbane Test against Australia last year. Recently, he was unbeaten on 98 in the ODI series against West Indies when the Indian innings were cut short due to rain.
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra lauded Gill’s technique and his ability to place the ball into the gaps as well. However, Shubman Gill has scored 499 runs which came at an outstanding average of 71.28 in the nine ODIs he has played. He has scored 460 runs in only six matches this year at an average of 112.50 and a healthy strike rate of 111.66 as well.
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“The opposition team might be weak but your batting is in your hands. Shubman Gill is telling repeatedly that the class with which he bats shows that this guy is not going to stop. He is technically extremely solid, he is compact, and he has the amazing ability to hit the ball into gaps. The pull he hits, short-arm jab, goes to the left of square leg, towards midwicket. Then when he plays the sweep, he hits them in vacant areas. He is absolutely outstanding. He has not played 10 matches but is amongst the highest run-scorers in the first nine games that anybody has played,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
