He might be only 20 but Shubman Gill has already being touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket.
Recently, India’s limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma called him the “future” while skipper Virat Kohli had earlier complimented the Punjab batsman, saying he wasn’t even 10 per cent of what Gill is when he was a teenager.
With less than a month to go for the 13th edition of Indian Premier League, Gill has now received rich praise from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Brendon McCullum, who wants to delegate some “leadership responsibility” to the youngster during the T20 tournament in UAE.
In the last season, Shubman batted way lower down the order which got the franchise lot of flak.
“What a talent, and what a good guy as well. He is going to be a part of our leadership group this year as well, at least in some capacity,” McCullum said of Gill in an interview in KKR website.
“Even though he is young, I am a big believer that it’s not necessarily true that you having played for a long time makes you a good leader,” the former Kiwi skipper added.
“It’s about you exhibiting the behaviour of a leader. It’s always good to have a cross-section of leadership within your group. To us, Shubman is one of those guys we would look to lean on for some leadership throughout this season,” he continued.
Dinesh Karthik took charge as KKR captain in 2018 when they made the play-off for the last time.
Hailing Karthik as one of the best wicketkeepers in India, McCullum said: “You’ve got to break DK down a little bit into different parts to understand this. I think first and foremost, wicketkeeping. He’s up there with the very best wicketkeepers in India.”
Commenting on Karthik’s batting, the New Zealand great opined: “He’s as good and as adaptable in any role. He doesn’t come with perhaps, the stardom that some guys do and that’s just DK’s personality.
“But he’s a big star within the KKR franchise, he’s now been at the helm for a couple of years and he’s had some success.”
According to McCullum, Dinesh Karthik has now matured as a leader.
“The team hasn’t quite got over the line, but I think DK is in that stage in his leadership where he’s almost ready to really mature and to really take ownership of the Knight Riders set up and back his judgement.”
With the addition of Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan to their leadership group, McCullum felt that Karthik would get some support to bring out his best.
“I think there’ll be a nice layer of leadership around DK where he’s able to really prosper and touch all of the members of the Kolkata line up to try and get the very best out of themselves.
“I love DK as a person. He’s quite intense at times which I love, we just need to provide him with some support. His passion for the game and his love of people is just infectious.”
