India opener Shubman Gill marked his return to India’s playing XI and made his World Cup debut when he was included in the XI for the mega-clash against Pakistan on Saturday in Ahmedabad.
At the ground – the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad – where Shubman Gill has had immense success in the past couple of years, he made his comeback to the side after recovering from dengue, and got a huge pop from the crowd when skipper Rohit Sharma announced he’s playing in the side today.
Another veteran mega-star who was happy to see Shubman Gill return to the side was Bollywood actor Salman Khan. Prior to the start of the match, Salman Khan was present in the Star Sports studio to promote his upcoming movie Tiger 3.
Hit outside the stadium: Salman Khan’s message to Shubman Gill
Salman revealed that he also had had covid and dengue when shootinf for his movie Kisi Ki Bhai Kisi Ka Jaan earlier in the year.
He gave some words of confidence for Gill, saying that he should play with confidence and hit the ball out of the stadium.
“Shubman should play. I shot the climax of Kisi Ki Bhai Kisi Ka Jaan when I had both Covid and Dengue. He is young also. I think he should play. Hit outside the stadium. Play with full confidence,” Salman Khan said on Star Sports.
Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was also standing alongside Salman Khan. He said: “When there is a match between India and Pakistan #ViratKohli becomes the Salman Khan of the stadium.”
Meanwhile, India elected to bowl first and currently are on top of Pakistan.
Pakistan had two good building partnerships – between openers Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique, and Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan – but the Indian bowlers kept hitting their lengths and ripped their batting order apart. At the time of writing, Pakistan are struggling at 174/7 after 37 overs.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan (Playing XI): Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
