Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has lavished praise on Shubman Gill after Gujarat Titans secured a seven-wicket win against Rajasthan Royals at New Chandigarh in the second qualifier on Friday.
Gill scored a magnum opus knock of 104 runs off just 53 balls with the help of 15 fours and three sixes. Thus, he played a key role in helping his team get over the line in the run chase of 215.
Gill was awarded the Player of the Match for his outstanding performance and Chopra was all praise for the GT skipper.
“A total bigger than this had never been chased in the playoffs, and they (GT) had never chased such a big total. He has become the first captain to score a century in the playoffs. We have seen Shubman scoring a lot of runs, but I don’t remember a century better than this. We call him the prince, but this was a king-size knock. This was domination of a different kind,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Chopra picked Gill’s knock as his best ever in the IPL as he batted at the top of his game in a must-win game.
“From whichever perspective you were seeing it, you felt Rajasthan were slightly ahead in this match. However, Shubman Gill has done a serious upgrade. He has changed something in his playing style. He is unstoppable. Not even one shot went to a fielder. In my opinion, this was Shubman Gill’s best IPL knock. Although he should have stayed until the end, he got out after finishing the match,” he observed.
On the other hand, Sai Sudharsan also scored an impressive knock of 58 runs off 32 balls and Chopra praised the left-hander for his consistent performances throughout the season.
“Sai Sudharsan, because one guy alone couldn’t have done this. They have become the first opening pair in IPL history in which both openers have scored more than 700 runs in a season. How do you do this every season? Sai Sudharsan, once again. This was his ninth 50-plus score, which includes a hundred,” he said.
The renowned analyst credited the GT openers – Gill and Sudharsan for playing fewer dot deliveries.
“His batting was once again technically extremely compact. He keeps hitting fours after fours, and doesn’t play dot balls at all. In fact, there were only 15 dot balls in the first 15 overs. So both together went at an average of one dot ball per over,” Chopra observed.
However, GT suffered a five-wicket loss in the IPL final against RCB.
