Continuing on his good form, Shubman Gill provided his side, Gujarat Titans (GT), with a solid start against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday afternoon, at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Hardik Pandya wasn’t available for today’s fixture because he was ill, and vice-captain Rashid Khan led the side in Hardik’s absence. With Pandya not being there in the middle order, GT felt the hole of an anchor batter, and that forced Shubman Gill to bat with even more responsibility, toning down his risky shots.
Shubman Gill scored 39 runs off 31 balls vs KKR
The 23-year-old in-form opener was at his sublime best today as he creamed 5 fours. However, he didn’t hit any six today as he didn’t play many aerial shots. When he attempted for a maximum, off a turning delivery from Sunil Narine, he couldn’t get a hold of it and was caught at long-on.
Shubman Gill crossed 2000 IPL runs
During his knock of 39 vs KKR, Shubman Gill crossed 2000 runs in the IPL. He achieved this landmark of 2000 IPL runs in his 74th innings in the tournament.
In his IPL career so far, Shubman Gill averages 32 and has scored 2016 runs at a strike rate of 126. Shubman Gill has hit 15 half-centuries in the IPL, and 5 of those fifties have come in his last 19 innings for the Gujarat Titans.
Shubman Gill made his IPL debut in 2018 for KKR and was with the franchise until 2021. In 55 innings for KKR, the youngster averaged 31 at a strike rate of 123; for GT, he averages 35 at a strike rate of 135.
Shubman Gill was one of the key performers for the Gujarat Titans in their title-winning IPL 2022 season, scoring 483 runs last year – easily his best IPL tournament.
Gujarat Titans take control of the game with powerful finishing vs KKR
Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans are inching toward a total of near to 185. After Gill’s knock, young left-hander Sai Sudharsan raised his fifty and stabalised his innings before the big hits from Abhinav Manohar and Vijay Shankar.
Playing XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Rashid Khan(c), Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal
Kolkata Knight Riders substitutes: Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, David Wiese, Mandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer
Gujarat Titans substitutes: Jayant Yadav, Srikar Bharat, Mohit Sharma, Matthew Wade, Joshua Little
