The 2018 U-19 World Cup saw Shubman Gill get launched into the spotlight. The batter returned as India's top run-scorer at the tournament, which also featured Prithvi Shaw - who was the captain of the side. Shaw had a decent World Cup but Gill became the talk of the town after his rich exploits. Without wasting any time, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) acquired him for Rs 1.8 crore and he went to make his IPL debut in the same year. But with KKR stacked with talent, Gill was forced to bat lower down the order, mostly at No. 6 and 7 the entire season. Gill finished the season with 203 runs from 13 matches at a strike-rate of 146.04.
According to former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, Gill was chosen over Rinku Singh, a gifted young player from Uttar Pradesh who was a committed middle-order batsman. In the midst of the next season, Gill approached Karthik, the captain of KKR at the time, and asked for the opening slot. The request left Karthik surprised, so he asked Gill for more time and gave him the chance to start at the top of the order in the latter stages of the league stage. The promotion came only after KKR had no chance of making it to the playoffs. Gill seized the chance with both hands, scoring a remarkable half-century and never looked back. Six years down the line, Gill has now become India's Test captain.
Karthik during an interaction on Sky Sports podcast alongside Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, and Ravi Shastri discussed his experiences with Gill at KKR. "The first time I met him was right from the U19, they had earmarked him as a good player. He got picked for KKR, in which I was leading, sadly, for them. But the point is, he came in as an opening batter. He was somebody who did really well at number 3 in the U19 World Cup.
"But he couldn't fit in at number 3, we had somebody called Nitish Rana and then we had other batters. So he batted at number 6 and 7, just him and Russell through the middle. He wasn't definitely customised for that role.
"It was something that he had to work on a little bit. But not once did he frown. I thought he made the most of the situation. But the one thing that did come through was his determination. He wanted to do well. He wanted to be part of the IPL because there was another player there, just behind the ranks, who was doing very nicely. His name was Rinku Singh."
"I played Shubman Gill actually at that stage, slightly ahead of Rinku Singh. And it was a decision that was justified with the way things panned out because he was very calm under pressure. And with someone like Russell, a lot of the time, you would just give him a strike and just observe what's happening.
"If the game came on the line, he would hit you that one boundary. So you almost knew this guy could handle pressure. And things kept going for a year, year and a half. And the second year when we came back, we didn't do that well at the start. So one day he walked up to me and said, 'DK bhai, I think it's time I can open now.' You know, you're the captain, if somebody comes in, do you think there's an option to open? That would be a nicer question.
"He said, 'It's time. I think I'll open.' So he's a young lad. He came and said straight up. I was a bit taken aback. I didn't see that coming because we've had interactions, always very respectful. He's coming from a small village. He and his dad used to practise a lot in those areas. They used to have a cement wicket, that's how he grew up playing with him. For me, it was a bit of a revelation, a young boy coming and saying, 'I think I'm ready. Now you can send me.'
"I told him, give me a couple of games because the guy who's there, we need to probably wait for him to fail a little more, because I need to back him as well. He said, 'Okay, when it comes, please make sure it's me because I'm ready.' And the first game he got the opportunity. It came against Punjab Kings. (He scored a fifty) And it was almost like, you know, you've made a mistake. We didn't qualify. It almost was like you made a mistake. If you had sent me earlier, I think we would have qualified. It was that kind of a, without him saying the obvious, it felt like that.”
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