Will Shubman Gill be India's future all-format player?

Shubman Gill currently has got the highest individual score in T20Is for an Indian. (Photo: Twitter)

The timing could not have been better for Shubman Gill. Just when cricket analysts were beginning to doubt his abilities in the shortest format of the game, he stacked up a century that’s brought all the gushing back in play.

Just recently, former opening batter Gautam Gambhir said that Gill hadn’t “found his feet in T20 format, when it comes to playing international cricket. Sometimes you have to play at a different tempo. His basic game suits (the) 50-over format.” Gambhir’s assertion came after the first two Twenty20 Internationals between India and New Zealand in which Gill had scores of 7 and 11.

But in the third and deciding T20I on Wednesday in Ahmedabad, Gill’s unbeaten 126 at a strike rate (runs per 100 balls) of 200 has bumped up his career T20I average from a pedestrian 15 to a respectable 40.40. The numbers, though, have to be seen in context — Gill has played only six T20Is, the first of which came in January this year against Sri Lanka

Gill’s favourite opponent team at the moment ought to be New Zealand — without Trent Boult and Tim Southee. In the three One-day Internationals he played against New Zealand prior to the T20I series, he had scores of 208, 40 not out and 112. Prior to the NZ series, his ODI average was an impressive 59.60. It currently stands at 73.76, but then again, he has played only 21 ODIs.

“He’s technically so sound that it’s very easy for him,” said India’s T20I captain Hardik Pandya about Gill after Wednesday’s match. “It’s just a switch he needs to do to play T20, ODI and Test cricket because he has the game for all formats. He’s actually one of those batsmen along with Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) who can hit good balls and make them a bad ball.” Pandya is also Gill’s Indian Premier League (IPL) captain with the Gujarat Titans.

Shubman Gill. (Photo: Twitter)

Gill’s transformation from a Test match player to one who can play competently in all formats comes at a time when India are set to host the 50-over World Cup later this year, besides the IPL in a few months. The 23 year-old Gill was one of Gujarat Titans’ anchors last season, scoring 483 runs that helped the team to win the title in its maiden season.

But it’s taken the opening batter from Punjab some time to become a dinner-table conversation, not since that defining inning in the fourth Test against Australia in Brisbane that helped India win an away series in 2021. With scores of 45, 35 not out, 50, 31 and 7, Gill had showed enough promise in his debut series till India faced an imposing 328-run target in the last innings at the Gabba, with the series level at 1-1. Though Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 89 garnered more attention, primarily because he batted till the end with the tail, it was Gill who set up the victory with a sublime innings of 91 at the top of the order.

The innings may have marked him out as a Test match cricketer but it was not until his 23rd Test innings — against Bangladesh in December 2022 — that he got his Test maiden century. His numbers in the five-day format — 736 runs at an average of 32 — do not reflect his skills as an opening batter. But there seems to be enough belief that he will be a future all-format player, with inevitable and unfair comparisons to Virat Kohli.

“The way he was batting in this series, even before the series, I don’t think much needs to be told (to him),” said India ODI captain Rohit Sharma. “He understands his game very well, he paces his innings very well… He has got great maturity in the way he thinks about the game and the way he approaches the game. That is all I can say. I have not had played lot of cricket with him but from the first time I saw him in Australia in Test series, we all know how he batted in that Test match at the Gabba.”

Gill has currently got the highest individual score in T20Is for an Indian, his 126 bettering Kohli’s 122 scored last year. Gill is also the youngest Indian to score a century in T20Is, 10 days younger than Suresh Raina when he got a hundred in the 2010 World T20. The records, along with the accolades, just seem to be rolling in his direction.

Shubman Gill in a pre-match practice session. (Photo: AP)

Gill’s success also gives India an embarrassment of choices at the top of the order. Already Sharma and KL Rahul vie for the top spot. Ishan Kishan, whose double century in an ODI against Bangladesh in December has now been eclipsed by Gill’s double, is also making a case for himself and could play the Test series against Australia this month in the absence of Rishabh Pant.

Prithvi Shaw, currently out of favour with the national selectors, has been the fastest-scoring Indian opener in the powerplay and his strike rate of 152.27 during this phase is among the best in the world, according to ESPNCricinfo. Besides, Shaw has been pushing hard for a place in the Indian team on the back of an impressive domestic season, leaving the India openers’ spot as one of the most competitive positions in the team.

Sharma is already 35 while Rahul’s career has plateaued for the longest time despite being, at different times, India’s captain and vice-captain. Gill, maybe with Shaw, could be the future of Indian cricket.

But his present is not too bad either, with 2023 starting out in a particularly impressive manner. Four Tests and three ODIs against Australia are coming up next. While Gill’s chances of playing the first Test starting February 9 are not certain, with Rahul and Sharma expected to open, Gill could replace an injured Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI.

Irrespective of when his next match is or the format, he will have plenty of opportunities to cement his credentials, his place in the side and to prove that he can be just as good against stronger teams.