Shubman Gill Welcomes Healthy Competition Among Openers
With India’s victory in the T20I series in Zimbabwe, the rivalry for the opening spots has been more fierce, which can only be a “good thing” for competitor Shubman Gill.
Gill was the top run scorer in the five-match series in Harare. He is scheduled to begin alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in the three T20 Internationals in Sri Lanka later this month. He did not travel with the USA and Caribbean T20 World Cup team.
India used as many as four openers in the playing eleven over the most of the series, and Gill, Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, and Ruturaj Gaikwad all performed admirably.
In all five of the matches, Gill captained India’s reserve side and opened the batting. Jaiswal joined Gill at the top of the order starting in the third game.
He opened with colleague Abhishek Sharma of Punjab, who hit a hundred and fifty in his debut series, for the first two games. Gill had the lowest strike rate of the four openers—125.92—against Jaiswal (165.88), Gaikwad (158.33), and Abhishek (174.64).
“It’s a good thing that everyone’s performing. It shows that everyone is hungry and nobody is ready to take it easy. For any country or board, that’s always a good thing,” said Gill on Sunday referring to the openers.
When choosing the openers for the Sri Lanka series, the selectors will have many challenges in the wake of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s departure from T20Is.
“Anyone who got the opportunity grabbed it with both hands. The openers to bowlers to all-rounders to spinners, everyone made a mark and I think the selectors have now seen everything and it’s up to them to name the squad for the next series,” he said after India’s 4-1 series win over Zimbabwe.
Read More:
Gill said he relished the challenge of leading the team through the series.
“One thing about captaincy I feel is how much confidence you can show in your players. I try to do that and make them believe that if you try and execute the plans, the results will always follow,” Gill said.
“After losing the first match, we were under a bit of pressure. It’s not easy to play back to back games and the series was planned in a way that there were two back-to-back games, a couple of days rest and then again back-to-back games.
“It’s never easy playing a series like that but I think the way we came back after losing the first T20I was really remarkable.”
After losing the first game of the series, India came back to win 4-1.
“Seeing everyone hungry and so quickly adapting to the situation and assessing the conditions was truly spectacular to watch,” said Gill.
With the ball moving around in the powerplay, the opener thought it was important to be a little cautious early in the innings.
“I think, as per the conditions of the wicket, there were some challenging conditions, especially in the powerplay, the ball was always doing something or the other. As an opening batter, my focus was to see out 4-5 overs and not concede any wicket,” he added.
The post Shubman Gill Welcomes Healthy Competition Among Openers appeared first on Cricket Country.