Former BCCI selector Saba Karim seems not quite impressed with Shubman Gill’s batting in the recently concluded Zimbabwe tour. Gill was tasked to lead a young team in the five-match T20I series which India won 4-1.
The Men in Blue lost the opening match of the tour but came roaring back in the following games. According to Karim, Gill excelled in captaincy but looked a bit inconsistent as a batter. The young opener, however, was the leading scorer for his team in the bilateral series. Featuring in all five T20Is, Gill has aggregated 170 runs at an average of 42.50 and a strike rate of 125.93.
“Shubman Gill as a captain and a batter. I was expecting a little more consistency in Shubman Gill’s batting. That was a little lacking. However, he performed fantastically as a captain,” Saba Karim said on Sony Sports, as quoted by Times of India.
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The ex-India cricketer, however, lauded Shubman Gill for his leadership qualities. “Pressure mounts on any captain after losing the first match, and that too a young captain. He got his players to rally splendidly,” he added.
Saba Karim further shed light on the performance of Yashasvi Jaiswal. The youngster was part of India’s T20 World Cup squad. But he didn’t play any match as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli opened the innings for the eventual champions.
Jaiswal was Gill’s opening partner in the last three T20Is of the Zimbabwe series. The southpaw was the second-highest scorer for India with 141 runs that he registered at an average of over 70.
“Jaiswal scoring runs. He didn’t get a chance in the World Cup. When you haven’t batted for a long time and haven’t played matches, it’s not easy to show form as soon as you come. However, we saw that,” Saba Karim explained, highlighting his unbeaten 93-run knock in the fourth T20I against Zimbabwe.
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The other two top-order batters– Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad– also appeared in sublime form during the Zimbabwe tour. Sharma returned with a duck in his T20I debut but bounced back with a century in the next game. Gaikwad, on the other hand, batted at No. 3 and 4 in the series and struck 133 runs in four matches.
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