WTC 2023 Final: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Siraj talk about ‘superstar’ Shubman Gill

Shubman Gill has scored hundreds in all three formats for India.

By Jatin Sharma - 08 Jun, 2023

The last 12 months have been explosive for opener Shubman Gill, who has scored heavily in all three formats of the game for India as he smashed two Test centuries, a double hundred in ODIs, and a maiden T20I ton.

Then in the IPL 2023, Shubman Gill won the Orange Cap for most runs as he made 890 runs in 17 matches with 3 centuries to his name.

He is also playing his second World Test Championship final as India clashed with Australia in the WTC 2023 summit clash which began on June 7 at the Oval.

Shubman Gill received unanimous praise from his teammates including seniors like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and coach Rahul Dravid.

Shubman Gill has got so much potential. Without a doubt in my mind, the next big thing for Indian cricket. He’s got everything that is required to have success at this level. I just hope that he continues his good run of form,” Rohit Sharma said in a video on ICC Website.

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Extremely talented. We’re gonna have our work cut out. He’s the new star on the rise and hopefully, he takes a little bit longer to establish himself as that star," said Australia coach Andrew McDonald.

“I saw him as an under-19 kid at the 2018 World Cup. You could see that he was earmarked to be a very special player for India," said India coach Rahul Dravid.

Shubman come together over the last year. He’s always been a very special talent. But I think over the last year, it’s all come together. I think he’s been through, you know, a bit of ups and downs. He’s had a few injuries. He’s been in and out of the team. He’s not always been a certainty in the test team or the one-day side.

But I think a lot of that has come together beautifully over the last sort of 14 to 16 months, where we’ve just getting to see the best of him, you’re getting to see a truly world-class player. And hopefully, this is just the start of many great years that Shubman has for India," Dravid added.

Virat Kohli was most praiseful of Shubman Gill and said that he was keen on helping him move to the next level in international cricket.

What I know and what he’s told me is he’s looked up to my career when I was coming up the ranks and He speaks to me a lot about the game as well. And I’m keen to help him I’m keen to help him grow and you know, these tags of King and Prince and all those kinds of things that are great for the public and for the spectators to see but I think the job of any senior player is to help groom youngsters and give them the insight that you’ve experienced through your career so that they can manage their ups and downs pretty well. He’s a lovely kid and he’s playing amazingly well and I wish that it continues the same in this test match as well," said Virat Kohli.

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He has so much time. While others tend to hit the bouncer randomly, he hits it straight to midwicket with precision. He seems to have an abundance of time and I confidently stated back then that he would become a superstar. The fact that we both made our test debut together is a fantastic feeling. When one of your teammates performs exceptionally well, it brings me immense joy and happiness for him," said Mohammed Siraj.

The man himself, Shubman Gill spoke about how he got into the game because of his father who is a huge cricket buff.

It all began with actually my dad, he loves cricket. And I was just a kid who was fascinated by my dad. What is this thing that he’s so you know, excited about? And like all crazy Indian families we had cricketing stuff at home and I just picked it up and started playing when I was three. And then my dad was very happy and excited that you know a three-year-old who had probably just started running, is playing cricket, and that’s how it started for me. From there only. He was the one who recognized that. Okay, that might be something," Shubman Gill.

(ICC inputs)

By Jatin Sharma - 08 Jun, 2023

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