India captain Shubman Gill is pretty impressed by the newbies—Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey—in international cricket. After rain in Dharamsala had reduced the ODI series opener between India and Afghanistan to a 25-over game, Brar and Dubey left their marks with three-fors each.

“Very impressive upfront – how Gurnoor bowled, brilliant pace and the way he was swinging the ball, the kind of lengths he bowled consistently,” Gill said after India took a 1-0 lead against Afghanistan as well. “And even Harsh as well. After, in the first over, he went for 16-17 runs [16]… the way he pulled the game back, trusted himself and kept tossing the ball up. It was very impressive.”

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After Dubey successfully controlled the middle overs with the ball in a truncated game, India maintained the control with Shubman Gill leading the chase with an unbeaten 84 off 66 balls. Quickfire thirties from Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul made sure India reach the finish line with ease.

“I think the middle overs in one-day games is very crucial. If you can, as a bowling group, keep building pressure in the middle overs and keep creating opportunities…. And same when we are batting, if we can keep rotating the strike, keep batting at a healthy run rate, six-six and a half without losing too many wickets, then you can really set up the game in the death. So these are the key points that we discuss in team meetings – how can we keep creating opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling group. And when we are batting, how can we keep really pumping on the runs,” Shubman Gill concluded.