Sunil Gavaskar was awestruck by Shubman Gill’s classy display of stroke-play in Gujarat Titans’ (GT) Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, May 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Gill notched his maiden IPL hundred off 56 balls as GT scored 188 for nine in their 20 overs. Gujarat’s innings was mostly about a 147-run stand between Shubman and Sai Sudharsan, who played the sheet-anchor’s role.
“Gill has a lot of time to play shots. The reason for this is that he reads the ball well and then decides on his shot. Gill is in the right balance and his head position is good while playing any shot, and he also executes it well,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying on Star Sports.
Legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh also lauded Gill for showing a lot of flexibility and playing shots as per match situations.
“The speciality of Shubman Gill is that he has all kinds of shots and he chooses his shots according to the situation. When Shubman is in his rhythm, he plays pure cricketing shots and this is a testimony to how strong his batting coaching has been. He doesn’t play random shots. It’s a great feeling to watch Shubman’s straight drives and pull shots,” Harbhajan said.
After Gill played the blinder, the GT bowlers took charge and guided their team to a win by 34 runs. GT also qualified for the playoffs and most importantly, cemented their spot in the top two.
Their last and final league game is against Faf du Plessis’ Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on May 21.
