 "India vs Zimbabwe: Shubman Gill eyes opener's slot following Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's T20I retirements")
Shubman Gill is eyeing the opener’s slot in the T20I format once again now that batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from the shortest format after India’s T20 World Cup triumph.
Gill, who had travelled with the Rohit-led squad to the US and the Caribbean as a traveling reserve, is leading a second-string Indian team in the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe that gets underway on Saturday.
Gill was an all-formats opener for the Men in Blue until Rohit and Kohli decided to return to the T20I fold in January this year in the build-up to the T20 World Cup. With the two stalwarts of the game quitting Twenty20 Internationals after the mega event, the spotlight once again falls on the Gujarat Titans captain.
“I think Rohit Bhai was an opener and Virat Bhai also opened in this World Cup…I have also opened in T20s. So, I think I will want to open in T20Is,” Gill told reporters on the eve of the first T20I against Zimbabwe in Harare.
Read | IND vs ZIM T20I series: Full schedule, match timings, date, venue, squads, live streaming details
As for the pressure of filling the void left behind by Rohit and Kohli, Gill said he was focused more on his personal goals than trying to achieve the lofty standards set by the two batting icons.
“Pressure and expectations…they I think always remain. But what Virat bhai and Rohit bhai have achieved, if I look to achieve that or reach that, it will be very difficult for me,” Gill said.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Every player has his own goal, where he wants to reach. That is the pressure. If you want to reach where other people have reached, then you have more pressure.
“Obviously there is pressure. But what they’ve achieved or what they did for India…they are both idols and legends of Indian cricket. But as players and the team the things we want to achieve, there is definitely pressure about that,” Gill added.
Rohit had initially opened with the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal after returning to the T20I fold in the series against Afghanistan in January. The ‘Hitman’, however, would later walk out with Kohli by his side at the start of the Indian innings during the T20 World Cup.
Rohit and Kohli had, along with senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, announced their retirement from Twenty20 Internationals after India’s victory over South Africa in the final of the recently-concluded T20 World Cup.
While Jaiswal had been opening in T20Is since making his debut in India’s tour of West Indies last year, Gill confirmed Sunrisers Hyderabad top-order batter Abhishek Sharma will be opening the innings with him in the upcoming series with Jaiswal moving to the No 3 slot.
“Abhishek Sharma will open with me and Ruturaj Gaikwad will bat at No 3,” Gill said.
Abhishek had been in red-hot form in the 17th season of the Indian Premier League earlier this year, scoring 484 runs at a strike rate of 204.22.
The 23-year-old formed a successful opening pairing with Australia’s Travis Head, and the two played a key role in helping the ‘Orange Army’ reach the final for the third time, where they would eventually suffer a defeat at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
As for the challenge of leading the Indian squad that comprises fairly experienced players such as Sanju Samson, Gill said he would be banking on the experience of leading the Gujarat Titans earlier this year.
“I’ve learnt a lot of lessons when I captained my IPL team for the first time. I got to know a lot more things about myself and a lot more things about the leadership perspective.
“I felt most of the challenges that you face as a captain are more mental, how you prepare the boys. Everyone’s got the skill set, it’s about how you can give them (other players) the confidence to be able to deliver that skill set on the field,” Gill, who had taken over the reins of the Titans following Hardik Pandya’s dramatic trade to Mumbai Indians, said.
As for the upcoming tour, Gill said it would give some of the younger members of the Indian squad and fringe players some much-needed exposure and understand the rigours of international cricket.
“If you look at the team, it’s a quite different team from the one that played in the World Cup. There are a lot of young players in the team, including myself,” said Gill.
“We just want to give the players experience and what it is like to play at the international level because a lot of the players haven’t played that many matches and some of the players haven’t even made their debut.
“I think that is our aim for the series to give them more international exposure and experience,” Gill added.
As for the home team, the 24-year-old expected the Chevrons to be competitive in the shortest format.
“I think you guys have got a good T20 team. Even the last time when we played in the one-dayers….the last one-day we played went on to be quite a close one.
“We know that it’s going to be no different. The way you guys are going to come against us is going to be no different than any other nation and that’s the challenge for us,” Gill signed off.
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