India’s vice-captain Shubman Gill said the century against Bangladesh in their Champions Trophy opener is one of the most satisfying knocks he has played in his career. This was also Gill’s maiden century in the major ICC events.
Before the eight-team tournament, Gill was in terrific form, scoring 259 runs in three ODIs against England at 86.33. The Indian opener continued his purple patch, scoring an unbeaten 101 off 129 balls to help his team register a six wicket win at Dubai on Thursday.
India was chasing a fighting total of 229 runs on a sluggish wicket, which got difficult to bat on as the match progressed. Earlier in the match, India had Bangladesh on the ropes at 35-5 but their sloppy work in the field (bungled three chances) allowed the Tigers to bounce back into the game. Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali added 156 runs for the sixth wicket with the former scoring a fine century whereas the latter contributed 68.
On the other hand, India was also put under pressure as they were 144-4 at one stage but KL Rahul and Shubman Gill were able to see their team through. Gill was awarded Player of the Match for his match-winning knock.
Gill said in the post-match presentation, “Definitely one of my most satisfying innings that I have played and my first century in ICC events. Very satisfying and very happy with the way I performed. When me and Rohit bhai went out there, we thought cutting the ball wasn’t easy because the balls which were outside the off-stump weren’t coming onto the bat that nicely. So I thought of using my feet to even the fast bowlers and tried to go over the circle.”
He added, “When the spinners came on, me and Virat bhai were talking in the middle that it’s not easy to score singles off the front foot, so we’ll try to score singles off the back foot. And it’s not easy to hit down the ground, so we just keep rotating the strike. At one point, there was a bit of pressure on us. The message was sent from outside that I have to try to bat till the end and that’s what I tried to do.”
India will next take on arch-rivals Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.
