After India registered a dominating win over West Indies in the second ODI, former India stars Sunil Gavaskar and Gautam Gambhir lauded skipper Shubman Gill for his spectacular knocks.
Speaking on JioStar’s ‘Haier Cricket Live’, JioStar expert Sunil Gavaskar said, “Yes, Shubman is going to be the man who’s going to show the current and the next generation how to bat in what situations, how to keep your cool, how to pace your chase.”
“What we saw in this game was just incredible. 406 runs to chase, never easy. It really was a superb innings, a captain’s innings. He wanted to be, as a captain, right there till the end and finish it himself. That is the hallmark of really great players. And that’s exactly what leadership is all about. Be there right till the end. He deals with every ball as if it’s the first ball that he’s facing.”
“That was the secret of Sir Don Bradman’s batting. Sir Don Bradman used to say that every ball that he faced, even if he was batting on 200-plus, he played thinking as if he was on zero, as if it was his first ball. And I think that’s exactly what you see with Shubman Gill, one of the reasons why you see him play risk-free cricket, and he’s got this wide range of shots,” he added.
Apart from him, current India coach Gautam Gambhir also reflected on Gill’s knock. While speaking on multiple aspects, he spoke about how Shubman Gill has grown as a Captain.
“I’m not going to talk about his records because records are meant to be broken. But I think the responsibility that he’s taken, because a lot of times we feel that once you become a captain of two formats, you don’t want your performance to go down, but his performance has only gone up since he took over as a captain in England,” he said.
“Since then, we’ve seen the evolution of Shubman, not only in white-ball cricket, but in red-ball cricket as well. He’s got a great future ahead if he keeps his head down. He ticks all the boxes, he’s a nice guy, he’s got a lot of respect in the dressing room, people listen to him and, more importantly, his performances are showing as well. And the most impressive thing that I think of him is that he’s becoming a bowlers’ captain. He knows how difficult it is for the bowlers in this format, and once you do that, you will always earn that respect in the dressing room.”
The 2011 ODI World Cup winner also spoke about putting players in pressure situations in the lead up to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027. “It wasn’t a dead rubber, not at all,” Gambhir asserted.
“We were 1-0 up in the series, but we gave Auqib an opportunity. We could have given him the opportunity in the next match too, when it’s a dead rubber, but in a dead rubber, you don’t have that pressure which comes with the pressure of winning a series. And we all know that the World Cup is all about pressure.”
“Cricket isn’t going to change much, bat and ball won’t change, only the pressure will be different because the World Cup comes once in four years. For example, having Gurnoor bowl in the first 10 overs and then bowling at the death, I know people will talk about his analysis, but the more he bowls in tough conditions, in tough situations, the better it is for Indian cricket. Because you can have him bowl in the middle overs and get him to improve his analysis or stats and make him bowl defensively, but the more we expose them at such times, the better it is for Indian cricket.”
With Inputs from PR
