India’s young batter Shubman Gill took the cricketing world by storm with his stunning exploits in white-ball cricket last year.
Gill finished the year 2023 as the highest ODI run-getter, scoring 1584 runs in 29 innings at an average of 63.36 with five hundreds and nine half-centuries.
The right-hander also slammed a T20I century against New Zealand and scored 312 runs at an impressive strike rate of 145.11 in the shortest format of the game. He won the Orange Cap in the IPL 2023 season as well.
However, Shubman failed to leave a big mark in the longest format of the game last year, amassing 258 runs from 10 innings at 28.66, including one hundred. After Cheteshwar Pujara’s ouster from the side, Gill was given the chance to bat at No. 3 in Tests last year but he couldn’t produce impressive results.
With India currently taking on England in a five-match Test series at home, Shubman Gill is keen to seal the No. 3 position.
After the toss in the first Test at Hyderabad, Gill talked about the differences in perspective between opening the innings and walking out to bat at the one down spot.
“Generally when you are opening, you are more used to going straightaway,” the 24-year-old said while speaking on Jio Cinema. “It’s all about how calm you can be and how much assessment you can do while you are out there and I got that quite a few times to do.”
During the West Indies tour last year, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal formed long stands at the top of the order for India and Gill wants the openers to replicate their performances on home soil against England.
“In the first Test match, both Yashasvi and Rohit bhai scored a century, I sat there for about 50-60 overs. If I sit out for 50-60 overs today, I would be happy. I like batting at three, I hope I’ll be there for a long time,” he said.
In the end, Shubman Gill said that he targets a breakthrough year in red-ball cricket in 2024.
“Last year was a breakthrough year for me in white-ball. This year, I believe, is going to be a breakthrough year for me in red ball,” he concluded.
