Despite scoring a century in the Indore ODI against New Zealand, Shubman Gill believes his father won’t be too pleased, and would have been even happier had he convered his century into a big score, as he had done in the first ODI, in Hyderabad, by slamming a double century.
In a light-hearted chat with head coach Rahul Dravid following India’s 3-0 ODI series win over New Zealand, which came on the back of a 3-0 whitewash over Sri Lanka, the duo talked about the hard taskmaster Gill’s father Lakhwinder Singh is.
Rahul Dravid revealed that Gill’s father wasn’t fully happy with the 23-year-old when he the opener was failing to get big scores, failing to convert his starts into something more substantial.
Speaking to the BCCI’s official website, Dravid said: “So when Shubman was scoring a lot of fifties and sixties and batting well, but not really converting them into big hundreds, I think his father had said, ‘Shubman are you only going to show us drizzles or are you actually going to show us some rain and some thunderstorms.’”
Shubman Gill took his father’s words to heart and has rained cats and dogs in January.
Against Sri Lanka, he recorded scores of 70(60) and 16(97), and then was at his best vs New Zealand: 208(149), 40*(53), and 112(78) bagging the Man of the Series award.
“I think his father will be glad that over the last month or so, what you have done is you really made it rain. So, well done. It must make you and your dad really proud,” said Dravid.
Smilingly Gill replied: “Yeah, I don’t think he will be too happy about this game. He would definitely tell me to, I would have carried on, I should have carried on in this game and looked to have got another big score in this one.”
“Hard task master your dad man! If we don’t push you, he will. So you’re in good hands,” said Dravid.
The BCCI uploaded the video of this chat between Gill and Dravid:
Motivation from father, joy of batting with captain @ImRo45 & @imVkohli and special bond with Head Coach ☺️ 👍
Man of the moment, @ShubmanGill, shares it all in this interview with Rahul Dravid 👌 👌 – By @ameyatilak
Full feature 🔽 #TeamIndia | #INDvNZhttps://t.co/sAOk7VUGMk pic.twitter.com/z6kza58nB5
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 25, 2023
