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Rohit Sharma not concerned about Shubman Gill’s dismal debut

Dixit Bhargav
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Rohit Sharma not concerned about Shubman Gill

Rohit Sharma not concerned about Shubman Gill: The stand-in Indian captain was unperturbed by the teenager not doing well first up.

Despite not being in the original squad for the ODI series against New Zealand, teenage batsman Shubman Gill allured a lot of eyeballs after he was named as a replacement alongside all-rounder Vijay Shankar for the suspended pair of Hardik Pandya and Lokesh Rahul.

The same primarily happened because of how Gill has fared since the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2018. Having scored 372 runs in six matches at an average of 124 and a strike rate of 112.38, Gill was India’s highest run-scorer in the tournament.

In his nine First-class games, the right-hand batsman has scored 1,089 runs at an average of 77.78 and a strike rate of 77.28, including three centuries and seven half-centuries.

Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in his maiden IPL season, Gill scored 203 runs in 13 matches at an average of 33.83 and a strike rate of 146.04. All these numbers had it in them to inflate Gill’s stakes. As a result, his international debut gained plentiful attention.

As luck would have it, Gill played his first two ODIs in conditions where India were reduced to 35-6 and 18-4 with him being part of both the collapses. Playing these two matches with an outside chance of booking a berth for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Gill’s performance might just have ruled out that opportunity.

Speaking to the media during the post-match press conference, stand-in India captain Rohit Sharma urged people to not judge the 19-year old cricketer after two matches. Sharma also laid emphasis on Gill learning a lot from this experience.

“With just two odd games, you can’t really judge too much and you can’t look into too much. He [Gill] went out under difficult situations but this will give him a lot of learning. Because he’s a top-order batsman, every time he plays he will be in those types of situations the ball seams or swings around. I think it will be a great learning for him,” Sharma said.

Bringing into picture his domestic performance in the last two years or so, Sharma was confident of Gill doing well at this highest level. “He’s a great talent, without a doubt. He has done really well for India A, his domestic team [Punjab]. So, I don’t see any reason why he can’t play any longer for India,” he concluded.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Dixit Bhargav

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Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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