Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik showered praise on Shubman Gill after the first T20I against Australia. Karthik compared Gill with Virat Kohli and said the Indian opener is playing a similar role to what the veteran batter plays in ODIs.
Shubman Gill scored an unbeaten knock of 37 runs off 20 balls with the help of four fours and one six. But there were questions raised on Gill’s form in the T20I format after he could only manage 127 runs in seven matches of the Asia Cup.
Gill added 62 runs off just 35 balls with Suryakumar Yadav before rain played killjoy in the opening game of the series.
Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “This is what Virat Kohli does in ODIs. You’ll never know where he is till you look at the scorecard. You’ll think he has only been around sometime and he’ll be on 45.”
Karthik noted that Gill is keeping players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and KL Rahul out of the team.
“I am sure he is aware of the kind of players he is keeping out, starting from Sanju ( opening), Yashasvi and the rest like Ruturaj and KL Rahul, etc. It’s not easy to be a T20 player right now because you need to be consistent, exceptionally skilled and almost play a match-winning knock every second or third game. That’s the kind of depth India has,” said Karthik.
“But the fact that he is the Indian captain and vice-captain will give him a lot of confidence. That helps you up to a point but then you need to go out there and put out the runs, which he has done nicely today.”
Karthik continued to praise Gill for grabbing his chance with both hands after he had a mundane ODI series against Australia.
“The Asia Cup wasn’t great for him but he took the opportunity today with both hands and played some lovely shots. That’s the kind of knock you want to see from him. We all know he can get a hundred but at what pace you get the hundred is what everybody is looking at. If he bats like this, he’ll do it quite nicely for India,” said Karthik (via the aforementioned source).
The second T20I between Australia and India will be played at the MCG on Friday.
