Team India won the T20 World Cup last month after a long gap of 17 years under the coaching of Rahul Dravid. However, soon after the title win, veteran trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from the format. Moreover, Gautam Gambhir has been appointed as the new Head Coach. And, Team India are all set to embark on a new journey in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav has been named new T20 captain with Shubman Gill as his deputy. Notably, Gill recently led the team in Zimbabwe and won the series 4-1.
“Communication has been the same like it used to be,” said Gill at the press conference before the start of the T20I series. “We’re the World Champions and it is about doing more of the same. Hopefully we get more success with the new coach and support staff.”
While it’s still early days for the team under Gambhir’s guidance but the talented opener spoke positively about his new coach.
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“We have only had two net sessions with him (Gambhir). This is my first time working with him. His intent and communication has been clear so far, he knows what he wants from each player. Gill also applauded assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, another personality with whom he shares a KKR connection as well. Notably, Nayar has been the batting coach for the franchise for a long time now and Gill felt that the veteran’s dedication to the job is what makes him different.
“I think the line of thinking and mindset (of Suryakumar and Gambhir) are on the same page. I had played under Surya Bhai in South Africa too. Their understanding is similar and I think you’ll get to see the effects on the field as well. He (Nayar) is very hard working and stays on the ground for long hours till the players are satisfied with their own progress. I think that is his biggest positive,” Shubman Gill again stated.
However, the last 12-18 months have been a roller-coaster ride for Gill in the T20 format of the game. He topped the run charts in the 2023 IPL season, with a whopping 890 runs at an average of 59 and a strike rate close to 158. However, his performances in T20Is weren’t as consistent although he did score a ton and a fifty in 14 games before the World Cup. Ultimately, he couldn’t make it to the World Cup squad and he chose to look at that as a learning experience as well.
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“Speaking of the World Cup selection, I think my performances in T20I prior to that weren’t as good as I had expected from myself. But going forward, we’ll playing about 30-40 games in this cycle and the focus will be to perform better as a batter,” he added. “As a batsman, it doesn’t change much. When I’m batting out there, I still need to perform and win matches for my team and my country. That doesn’t change. But when you are on the field, you have to make a few more decisions than as a player, so I think that’s the main difference.”
“We really enjoy batting with each other. The kind of shots we both play, we compliment each other. Also being a rightie-leftie partnership (really helps). We’ve had many good partnerships in the limited games that we have opened together. We have a lot of clarity and understanding between us, and it is a lot of fun,” Shubman Gill concluded.
