Shubman Gill on Wednesday (February 1) showed why he is touted as India’s next all-format batting superstar.

Opening the innings, Gill slammed 126 not out off 63 balls in the series-deciding third T20I against New Zealand, propelling the hosts to a mammoth 234/4 in 20 overs.

With this knock, the 23-year-old also became only the fifth Indian batter after Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli to hit a century across formats.

Impressed with his exploits, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan made a major claim about Shubman, saying that the young batter has as much potential as Virat Kohli, who has dominated bowlers across formats in the last decade.

"The way he is batting, I am a huge fan of his. I am repeatedly saying that he can become an all-format player for you. Virat Kohli ruled all formats for many years, this batter has as much potential. To convert that into performance is a different thing," Pathan said while speaking on Star Sports.

"That happens with time but Shubman Gill has started to do that. He scored his first century in August. Gill has now scored a total of six centuries in international cricket and we have just started February, where all other players have scored just four international centuries," he added.

Irfan Pathan observed that Gill continues to improve his game and doesn't have an issue facing pacers.

"He is improving his game. The challenge before Shubman Gill in T20 cricket was that whether his strike rate can improve once he gets set - we definitely saw that. We saw amazing shots today - on the up, the pull shots, and against the spin."

"He doesn't have any problems against pace, which we saw again today. Apart from playing the pull shots, he hit big shots against the pacers straight down the ground as well and we saw a mini-helicopter too," said Pathan.

Shubman Gill will be next seen in action in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, starting February 9 in Nagpur.