Right after earning a maiden Test call-up to the Indian cricket team, batter Shubman Gill had termed then captain Virat Kohli as his role model. Gill, who made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2019 replacing Kohli in the Playing XI, joined the Indian Test squad for the first time during a home series against South Africa the same year.
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It was the very same series where current captain Rohit Sharma had started to open in Test cricket. Gill was picked as a backup opener after Sharma and Mayank Agarwal. Gill was preferred over batter KL Rahul because of the latter managing to score just 110 runs at an average of 22 in the last three Tests.
On his ODI debut, Gill broke Kohli’s record by becoming the youngest Indian top-order batter. It was earlier this year that Gill outperformed Kohli by a huge margin to become the fastest Indian batter to complete 1,000 ODI runs.
Shubman Gill Termed Virat Kohli As His Role Model
Readers must note that both Kohli and Gill share a good bond on and off the field. In the recent World Test Championship final, Kohli was seen having fun with Gill in the slip cordon. Recently, they were even spotted watching the FA Cup final match between Manchester United and Manchester City.
Gill was speaking to the Times of India ahead of the South Africa Tests, where he said that he tries to follow the work ethics of Kohli. Even though he was aware that copying anyone, especially Kohli, is impossible considering how he is among the fittest players around the world.
“I have my role models. I try to follow the work ethics of Virat bhaiya but I know every player is different and you can’t copy anyone,” Gill had said.
Gill could not play a single game in the South Africa series as both Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal were in splendid form. Sharma scored 529 runs in four innings at an average of 132.25, whereas Agarwal scored 340 runs at 85.00.
Gujarat Titans’ opener finally made his debut during the Boxing Day Test against Australia the following year. He played a knock of 45 (65) in the debut innings with the help of eight boundaries.
Shubman Gill Record Under Virat Kohli
Gill played just seven matches in international cricket under Kohli’s captaincy where he scored 279 runs at an average of 25.36 with the help of one half-century. Out of seven, six of them were Test matches.
