Indian maestro Virat Kohli's social media post following Shubman Gill's scintillating ton in the third T20I against New Zealand in Ahmedabad went viral on the internet. Experts have tipped Shubman Gill to take over from Virat Kohli and emerge as the next batting superstar from India. That's why Virat Kohli's Instagram post on his young India teammate came as no surprise to anyone.
However, Virat Kohli's choice of words for the Punjab-born cricketer did take the popular photo and video-sharing platform by storm.
Sharing a picture with the 23-year-old batter, Virat Kohli wrote: “Sitaara (Star). The future is here.”
With his unbeaten 126-run-knock against the Black Caps in Gujarat, Shubman Gill became the youngest men’s cricketer to score hundreds in all three formats of the game. At 23 years and 146 days, he accomplished the feat against Kiwis in the third T20I.
He also joined a select band of Indian players who have made hundreds across all formats. Before him, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and KL Rahul were the only Indians to reach the milestone.
Moreover, Gill is the youngest Indian batter to hit a T20I hundred, going past Suresh Raina’s previous mark, who achieved the landmark in 23 years and 156 days.
If this wasn’t enough, Shubman Gill added another feather to his cap as he leapfrogged Virat Kohli to have the highest score by an Indian in T20Is. The former India captain scored an excellent 122 off 61 balls against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in September last year.
The youngster was positive from the outset as he cracked boundaries early in his innings before clobbering Lockie Ferguson for 11 runs in an over.
Afterward, Shubman Gill went berserk as he began dealing in boundaries and sixes, but his all-out assault on the New Zealand bowlers only came after he completed his half-century. Later, Rahul Tripathi and Suryakumar Yadav perished after scoring 44 off 22 and 24 off 13 balls, leaving Gill to go ballistic in his attack.
Gill struck back-to-back sixes against Benjamin Lister before smashing two more maximums against Blair Tickner to cruise into the 90s. He brought up his maiden T20I century with a powerful cover drive off Lockie Ferguson and collected another 17 runs in the 19th over to take India past the 200-mark. The Men in Blue eventually finished with a mammoth total of 234/4.
Chasing a massive score, New Zealand never looked threatening during the run chase as they lost their openers in the first two overs and half their side inside the initial powerplay. Later, Hardik Pandya and his boys bowled them out for 66, registering their biggest victory in T20Is by a massive margin of 168 runs.
Comparing Shubman Gill with Virat Kohli, former India pacer Irfan Pathan said that the young batter had the potential to play all three formats for the national team and replicate the former skipper’s lofty standards.
“The way he is batting, I am a huge fan of his. I am repeatedly saying that he can become an all-format player for you. Virat Kohli ruled all formats for many years, this batter has as much potential. To convert that into performance is a different thing,” Irfan Pathan said.
“That happens with time but Shubman Gill has started to do that. He scored his first century in August. Gill has now scored a total of six centuries in international cricket and we have just started February, where all other players have scored just four international centuries,” Irfan Pathan added.
With Gill in prime form, former India batter Mohammed Kaif urged the Indian team management, including skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid to slot him in the middle-order against Australia in the Test series that starts in Nagpur next week.
Notably, Shubman Gill scored his first Test hundred against Bangladesh in December. But he only got his chance after Rohit Sharma got injured.
With the India captain back in the squad after recovering from a finger injury, there's no place at the top of the order with KL Rahul being Rohit Sharma's preferred opening partner.
Keeping all these things in mind, Mohammed Kaif has called for Shubman Gill's inclusion in the side purely as a middle-order batter.
“Gill might get a place at No. 5 or No. 6. He will definitely play. (Cheteshwar) Pujara will be at No. 3 and (Virat) Kohli is at No. 4. (Shreyas) Iyer is not yet fit. So there is a place at No. 5 or No. 6 where he can be fit. He scored his first Test century recently in Bangladesh. In the last one to one-and-a-half months, he scored a century in a Test match, scored a double century and after that his bat has not stopped,” Mohammed Kaif told Star Sports.
“He (Gill) is the sort of player you would want to see playing in the XI. So he will get a place somewhere or the other. He is a class batter and has form with him. There is simplicity in his batting,” he concluded.
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