Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin believes it would be wrong to compare the opening pair of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan with Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.
Kohli and AB added 10 century stands for RCB in the past whereas Gill and Sudharsan have already put together nine century partnerships for Gujarat Titans. Gill and Sai added 118 runs off 65 balls against Rajasthan Royals as they scored 84 and 55 runs respectively at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur on Saturday.
Thus, the duo played a key role in helping Gujarat Titans post 229 runs on the board.
Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “It’s wrong to compare this partnership with Kohli and AB de Villiers’ pairing even if they are closing in on the century partnerships. AB de Villiers was a middle-order batter unlike these two, and he finished so many matches. Comparisons are wrong, and times are changing. That was a middle-order batter and an opener stitching together so many century partnerships.”
“Gill and Sai are batting brilliantly, though. Even they wouldn’t have thought they would score 80 in the powerplay. If you asked them on the morning of the match, even they would have said we’ll get 56 to 62 in the powerplay in Jaipur at the maximum. So it was RR who helped them get to 81 in the powerplay.”
Ashwin praised Rashid Khan for getting back into form, Khan bagged 4-33 in his four overs against the inaugural champions. The former off-spinner highlighted that GT’s top three are doing the lion share’s of the scoring but teams are finding it hard to dislodge the trio
“Rashid Khan is back to his best, thanks to none of the RR batters picking him. Their bowling attack is not just on fire. It’s like they own the entire gas factory with the ball. Their batting relies on the top three, yet every team is finding it impossible to dislodge them. With Ahmedabad hosting the final, GT are almost challenging the other teams to beat them in a final there,” said Ashwin (via the aforementioned source).
Gujarat Titans will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
