The Indian men’s cricket team is set to kickstart a new era with the retirement of two of their biggest T20I stars in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. A young Indian squad, led by Shubman Gill, is in Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series starting Saturday with an aim to gain international experience and make an impression.
Gill is just 24 but isn’t a newbie by any stretch. He’s already represented India across formats, played in a couple of world championships and has been earmarked for greatness. However, the pressure of following into the footsteps of the two modern-day batting greats is immense and comparisons are bound to happen given the hype.
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Gill admits there are expectations from him but it’s difficult to replicate what Rohit and Kohli have achieved in their respective India careers.
“Pressure and expectations…they I think always remain. But what Virat Bhai and Rohit Bhai have achieved, if I look to achieve that or reach that, it will be very difficult for me,” Gill said ahead of the 1st T20I in Harare.
“Every player has his own goal, where he wants to reach. That is the pressure. If you want to reach where other people have reached, then you have more pressure,” he added.
Rohit and Kohli retire as the two most prolific run-getters in T20I history.
“Obviously there is pressure. But what they’ve achieved or what they did for India…they are both idols and legends of Indian cricket. But as players and the team the things we want to achieve, there is definitely pressure about that,” Gill said.
Gill is making his India captaincy debut in Zimbabwe and hopes that the lessons learnt while captaining Gujarat Titans in IPL will help him.
“I’ve learnt a lot of lessons when I captained my IPL team for the first time. I got to know a lot more things about myself and a lot more things about the leadership perspective,” he said.
“I felt most of the challenges that you face as a captain are more mental, how you prepare the boys. Everyone’s got the skill set, it’s about how you can give them (other players) the confidence to be able to deliver that skill set on the field,” he added.
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