Being one of the most consistent performers in the present domestic cricket, the 19-year-old right-handed opening batsman Shubman Gill has announced that he is ready to play for the senior Indian cricket team.
Recently, Gill hit a brilliant century in the ongoing Deodhar Trophy. Playing for India C, he played a match-winning knock of 106 runs against India A on Thursday (October 25) after coming to bat at the no.3 position to chasing the target of 294 runs.
After that game, Gill told PTI, “I am ready. I did not get the opportunity against the West Indies but I might get one in the next series. I am just happy scoring runs.”
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In the recently concluded two-match home Test series against Windies, Gill was included in the squad during the second Test at Hyderabad. Though he hasn’t got any on-field opportunity, he has felt great after becoming a part of the Indian dressing room.
Gill first came into the limelight during the 2018 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand that won by India U-19 cricket team under Prithvi Shaw’s captaincy and Gill won the Player of the Tournament award after finishing the tournament as the second leading runs scorer with 372 runs in five innings with the average of 124.00, including one century and three half-centuries.
After that, he impressed in his first IPL stint in 2018 season where he played for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and scored 203 runs with the average of 33.83.
In the recently concluded domestic List A tournament 2018/19 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Gill was in full flow with the bat and scored 418 runs in seven innings with the average of 59.71, including one century and three half-centuries. Gill was the leading run-scorer in the tournament for Punjab and in overall, he was the eighth leading run-scorer in the tournament.
Talking about handling the expectations, Gill said, “All these things (expectations) are there in your mind before you get into the middle. It is all about scoring runs when you get on the field. I don’t think what will happen when I get out. Yes, they all recognise you for your U-19 days but we have to keep performing the same way at the higher levels to get a chance.”
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With the time progresses, Gill is becoming more mature with the bat and his recent century for India C in Deodhar Trophy was the best evidence.
When Gill was asked whether it’s come naturally to him to building the innings or he talks with anyone, he replied, “I don’t talk to anyone on pacing the innings. Only my father, who is also my coach, advises me. Plus, we see lot of international cricket on television these days. I try to understand that and try to do the same in the middle.
“It is also about belief. That belief comes from practice and when you replicate that in a match, you get more confident about your game.”
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The Thursday game against India A was the do or die game for India C and Gill’s heroic century knock helped them to win the game comfortably by six wickets and qualify to the final of Deodhar Trophy.
Talking about his match-winning knock, Gill said, “It feels good to take the team into the final. Ishan and Surya bhai also batted well. It was important to convert loose balls on this wicket. If you don’t do that, it creates more pressure. The talk all through was to find an odd boundary and rotate the strike as the asking rate was constantly around six an over.”
