Shubman Gill is yet to play Test cricket for India, a box that could well be ticked in the pink-ball Test against Australia in Adelaide starting on December 17. Gill said playing Australia in their territory is ‘intimidating’, but called it a huge opportunity.
“It’s quite intimidating to play Australia in Australia, but I am really looking forward to it. As a batsman, there is no bigger opportunity than to play against Australia at their home as your confidence gets a major boost if you manage to score runs here,” Gill told KKR.in.
Gill was impressive in the pink-ball warm up match against Australia A, making 65 in the second innings before receiving a rough decision. He had also made 43 in the first innings, leading to calls for him to open the batting in the first Test as Prithvi Shaw struggled for form.
“We practiced quite a bit with the pink ball in the lead up to the Test match against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens last year (in November). But I haven’t played any competitive first-class match under lights,” he said.
Young Gill also sent out a warning to the Australians saying this Indian team wouldn’t be intimidated by sledging.
“There was a time when (Indian) players had a reputation of not being too aggressive, and people would take that for granted when sledging. Things have changed now,” he said.
“Every character is different, some people like to keep quiet and not react while for others, engaging in a verbal-battle eggs them on to do better. For me, I’m neither the kind to always keep quiet, nor the type to keep going at the opposition. But if the plan is to make us dance to their chin music, be rest assured we’ve got plenty of great moves in store.”
India had won the 2018-19 series 2-1, but in some quarters it was considered a consequence of ‘luck’ as Australia were without David Warner and Steve Smith. Another KKR player Kuldeep stressed India deserved the win, saying: “A Test series can never be won by luck.
“You need to win Test matches to win a series. We won two of them, and could have one the fourth one too had there been no rain. The criticism holds no merit. Whenever you are playing against a team, your own team’s performance matters the most. So instead of looking at the other team – who they have in their squad, and who they don’t – it makes more sense to talk about your own team. We did well, and hence we won the Test series. If our fast bowling works well and we perform as prolifically with the bat as we did the last time, we will win this time too.
“Yes, their team has now improved with the return of the experienced David Warner, Steve Smith and the likes of Marnus (Labuschagne), who has really done well for them in recent times. But last time too, their team was good but we played really some really good cricket to win. Looking forward to the challenge once again, it’s going to be a great contest.”
