Young Indian opener Shubman Gill has had a bright start to his India career: he’s played 11 Tests and 6 ODI so far, and averages 30 and 50 respectively in the two formats, with 6 fifties combined to his name, though he would want to soon get his maiden international century.
Gill missed his ton by only 2 runs in the third ODI in West Indies when rain ended India’s innings prematurely. That opportunity to get to his maiden international century for Gill could arise in the 3 ODIs against Zimbabwe. Led by KL Rahul, a second-string Indian unit will take on Zimbabwe in 3 ODIs starting August 18.
Shubman Gill bowls in the nets with Sunil Narine’s action
Gill, though, surprised the fans when he was seen bowling in the nets in Harare ahead of the first ODI. Senior journalist Vimal Kumar, who is in Harare, uploaded a video of India’s training session, focussing particularly on Gill, who was seen working determinedly with bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule on his spin bowling.
Interestingly, Shubman Gill was bowling with the action of West Indies’ Sunil Narine, Gill’s former teammate at KKR in the IPL. Similar to Narine, Gill was hiding the ball and his bowling arm behind his shoulder, only the front arm was loaded up and he was using variations, trying to seam the ball both ways; he even hit the stumps once after taking advice from the bowling coach.
You can see the video here:
Shubman Gill has got a bit of Rohit touch in him: Shikhar Dhawan
Shubman Gill was the Player of the Series in the ODI series win in West Indies; he registered scores of 64, 43 and 98*, finishing with 205 runs in 3 outings, and was involved in two century stands with Shikhar Dhawan.
Shikhar Dhawan, who was the captain vs West Indies, was so impressed with Gill that he said that youngster bats a bit like Rohit Sharma.
“He [Gill] has got a very good technique and he is a classy player; you can see that the touch he’s got – I think he has got a bit of Rohit touch in him. He has a lot of time in him. Good to see that he has scored 98 today. He knew how to convert his fifty to 90s. We both got two 100-run partnerships in three matches, that’s a very good sign. The way we handled the first ten overs and their bowling attack, it was really good,” Dhawan had said on Gill after India wiped the series 3-0.
