It has been a year to remember for Shubman Gill so far. The young right-handed batter had already scored a hundred in each format of the game this calendar year heading into the IPL. He had even become the youngest to reach an ODI double hundred, achieving the feat in the home series against New Zealand. However, he made his rich form count and after a few good knocks already under his belt in IPL 2023, he ensured that he surpassed the three figures mark in the tournament.
Gill scored his maiden IPL hundred in Gujarat Titans' (GT) match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. He scored 101 off 58 balls on a wicket where eight batters from his own team failed to reach double figures and announced that he was here to make it count. Following his match-winning knock, he earned words of praise from Team India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star Virat Kohli who is widely regarded as one of the best batters in modern day cricket.
Kohli's 'There's potential and then there's Gill. Go on and lead the next generation. God bless you,' Instagram story for Gill went viral on the internet. And following his remark, an old picture of Gill with his 'idol' Kohli has also surfaced on social media. The picture is from a BCCI Award ceremony where Kohli was handed over the Polly Umrigar Award for Cricketer of the Year) while Gill was adjudged the Best U-16 cricketer.
Gill had shared a picture of himself with Kohli from this award ceremony and captioned it: "With my idol 😍 😎👌 #bcciawards #juniorcricketeroftheyear 😁 @virat.kohli 👍 good luck for Australia tour 👍."
Years later, Gill has not only has shared dressing room with Kohli but the two share a wonderful equation. The recent comment from someone of the stature of Kohli will be something that Gill will cherish for a long time especially given that it came from one of the cricketers he grew up idolising.