Gujarat Titans (GT) on Friday (May 26) sealed a spot in the IPL 2023 final, with a thumping 62-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Opening batter Shubman Gill was the chief architect behind GT’s win in the knockout clash as he slammed 129 off 60 balls. His knock was studded with 7 fours and 10 sixes.

Thanks to his whirlwind century, the defending champions piled up a mammoth 233/3 on the board and then bundled out MI for 171 in 18.2 overs.

It was Gill’s third hundred in the last four innings and he surpassed Faf du Plessis to become the top run-getter this season. With 851 runs to his name, Shubman is now only the second Indian batter after Virat Kohli and fourth overall in the history of IPL after Jos Buttler and David Warner to aggregate more than 800 runs in an IPL season.

After the game, Gill had a candid conversation with GT skipper Hardik Pandya and explained what helped him get back-to-back hundreds lately.

“In the first half of the IPL, I was getting those starts but wasn’t able to convert them. So, I knew, it was about getting that one hundred. And once I get that, it’s all about the mental switch. And then you start thinking differently, playing differently and that’s what, I think, has worked for me,” Gill told Hardik in a video posted on IPL’s official website.

“When you play too many matches, I feel, things change but you don’t realise. Because you keep trying different things while playing. And if you don’t work on your basics, then you know how cruel this game can be. Three games and if you are not scoring, you feel like, ‘Shit! Where are you in this game?’

“I keep trying to work on my basics. I keep going back to work on my backlift and head position so that there is a habit of me being in a good position and not getting carried away with bad habits,” he added.

During the chat, Hardik Pandya heaped praise on Shubman Gill and said: “Sometimes we have to stop him because of the amount of batting he does. I get scared. What I’ve been liking is the confidence and the self-belief that you carry. And that’s the talk in the dressing room.”

Gill also attributed his success to the GT captain. “Before last season, Hardik came to me and said, ‘Play how you want to play. Before joining GT, I felt I was trying to play as someone I wasn’t. And he gave me that confidence to play my way,” the GT opener said.

“He deserves all the success and going to be the biggest superstar of India,” Hardik stated at the end of the video.