Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill are not paying attention to the King and Prince tags, and the 34-year-old legend is focused on helping the 23-year-old rising star to improve his game with his experience.
Over the past year, Shubman Gill has been in surreal touch across formats. He’s cemented his place in India’s ODI and Test side, and heading into the WTC Final 2023 against Australia, Gill is coming off a sensational 890-run Orange Cap winning IPL 2023 season.
Will Shubman Gill become the successor to Virat Kohli?
His talent, class, and form over the past 15 months has led to the fans hailing him as the Prince of Indian cricket, the successor to the batting legacy of Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sunil Gavaskar.
Speaking with the ICC ahead of the marquee clash against Australia at The Oval, Virat Kohli said he’s impressed with Gill’s will to learn, his ability and his temperament.
“I am keen to help him grow and really understand his potential and come into his own so that he can play for a long time and perform consistently and India cricket gets benefited,” Virat Kohli told the ICC.
“These tags of king and prince and all of that kind of thing are great for the public and spectators to see, but I think the job of any senior player is to help improve the youngsters and give them the insight you have had throughout your career.
“As long as a guy is keen to learn like him he is going to be fine as he wants to learn how to do this for a long time at the highest level and perform consistently. He is a lovely kid and he is playing amazingly well and I wish he continues the same in this Test match.”
The former India skipper added: “He (Gill) speaks to me a lot about the game, is very keen to learn and has an amazing skill set at his age. He has got an amazing ability and a temperament to perform at the highest level and is confident and we do have that relationship and we do have that understanding based upon respect.”
India captain and opener Rohit Sharma will partner Shubman Gill at the top in the WTC Final 2023.
“The way he is batting at the moment, I don’t think he needs any advice,” Rohit said. “He is a batter who likes to bat and likes to spend a lot of time in the middle.”
