India’s explosive opener Shubman Gill has been making headlines with his extraordinary performances for quite some time now. On Wednesday, he scored 126 off 53 balls in the third and decider T20I against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Gill sent a message to his critics that he is an all-format player.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan spoke about Gill’s batting. "Not in all three formats but in two formats. After this century (against New Zealand in the third T20I) he has also confirmed his spot in T20I cricket. In ODIs, he has already confirmed his spot”, Pathan said on Star Sports.
"If you talk about Test matches, you have two openers who have scored runs in difficult conditions, scored runs in England and won matches for India there. They are KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. So, suddenly because Shubman Gill has scored runs in the T20 format, you cannot ask them to step aside and let him play. You need the stability. But going forward, I have no doubt that he is an all three-format player. He is a good player against fast bowling and surely a leader in upcoming time."
Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team will face Pat Cummins-led Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set to begin on February 9th.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (injured and yet to recover), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav. (Ravindra Jadeja's inclusion in the squad is subject to the fitness report).
Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.