India vs Pakistan: Shubman Gill Returns to Usual Business

After nearly an hour-long hit in the net, Shubman Gill stood outside the net with one hand on the waist and the other holding his bat. Moments later, batting coach Vikram Rathour patted on his back and inquired if he felt okay. The classy right-hander nodded in affirmation and exited the area holding his two bats and the batting gear still on.

During the session, the 24-year-old batted on four different surfaces and faced a variety of bowlers, including R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami, and throw down specialists. Batting-wise, there wasn’t any problem as he looked in control facing a mix of seam and spin, and even went big vs R Ashwin, including the rare attempt to reverse-sweep the veteran off-spinner.

With Gill, batting isn’t the concern, hasn’t been the concern and hopefully won’t be a concern in future too. It’s the bout with dengue which kept him out of the first two World Cup fixtures vs Australia and Afghanistan. It’s the bout which made him spend a night in hospital and stay back in Chennai while the rest of his teammates travelled to Delhi for the Afghanistan game. There clearly has been a physical toll on his body as he looked a bit weak from a distance and it would have affected his mental state too.

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From bossing the ODI format for the last 12 months and then watching what could have been his first two World Cup games from the television sets, it would have been tough. More so because he was in the form of his life and having observed Gill from close quarters in the last couple of years, it’s very difficult to keep him away from cricket, batting to be more specific.

May it be a Test match, ODI, T20I or IPL. A day before the match, two days before the match or three days before the match, he would bat hours in the nets and keep making those sweet connections ball after ball, day after day and weeks after weeks. Even ahead of this big game vs Pakistan, he was in the nets hours after flying here from Chennai. It was nearly a one-hour hit yesterday too where he faced net bowlers and side-armers and kind of repeated the drill today too.

“99% he (Shubman Gill) is available. We’ll see tomorrow."

Just when Rohit Sharma was making this statement at the pre-match press conference, Gill was already out in the middle getting a feel of the playing surface and then engaged in a game of footie with the rest of his teammates. He stood near the makeshift net, created using plastic chairs, and warmed up for a good 15-20 minutes before chatter and banter took over, and players eased into the net area.

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Also batting with Gill in the adjacent net was Virat Kohli who looked a bit scratchy. It could well be because of the bats, which he changed for a couple of times and also got newer ones in between the session. Because of bat or due to some other reason, didn’t look like the Kohli we are used to seeing in the nets. He would nick a few from Shami and was troubled by the Indian seamer, who looked in fantastic rhythm today.

Not just Kohli, even Gill found run-making difficult against Shami as only the defensive shots were played with conviction. He rushed them with pace, beat them with movement and remained very consistent while doing that. The few signals from Kohli while facing Shami indicated that the seamer was getting the ball to rise and skid from a good-length spot. Well, that’s Shami for you. And he has had lot of white-ball success in this part of the world.

It’s not just Shami, his Gujarat Titans teammate Gill too has tasted a lot of success here in Ahmedabad for the Indian cricket team and his IPL team and will be a big boost to the Indian cricket team if fit and ready for the high-voltage clash.

Again, it’s not about batting, form or touch with the bat for Gill. It’s the 1%, the 1% which Rohit didn’t add to his 99% at the pre-match presser. The 1% centred around his fitness which would have definitely dropped after battle with dengue for more than a week. With Gill, even if there is an iota of doubt, the management shouldn’t risk him at this stage of the tournament. But if he checks all the boxes, he is going to be one of the first few names on the team sheet.