India Today Sports Desk

New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 8, 2025 19:10 IST

In Short

• Shubman Gill earned his maiden India call up in 2019
• He didn't have memorable outings in his first 2 matches
• Gill recently scored a sublime 87 in 1st ODI vs England

Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar recently revealed how young India batter Shubman Gill left former head coach Ravi Shastri stunned during his first-ever net session for India. Gill earned his maiden India call-up for the New Zealand tour in 2019. While he failed to impress with his performances on the pitch, scoring just 9 and 7 in the two ODIs he played on the tour, his net session was a treat to watch, revealed Bangar.

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The former India batting coach disclosed that every batter who comes into the Indian team has to perform well against the throwdown specialists who bowl extremely fast. However, Gill, who was just 18 years old at that time, batted flawlessly against them, which even earned him praise from the then-head coach Ravi Shastri, who was left in awe of his talent.

"The first glimpse of Shubman Gill we had during his first net session for India, there is a tradition in India that during the nets session, if you want that approval, you will have to do well against throwdown specialists, who bowl really fast. He was so impressive in that net session which was his screen test that Ravi Shastri was left stunned and said 'ek taiyaar player mil gaya humein (We’ve got someone who’s ready for international cricket)'. Such was his first impact,” said Bangar on Star Sports.

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Gill recently played a sublime innings of 87 (96) in the first ODI against England in Nagpur to help India chase down 249 comfortably and set up a four-wicket win. He got involved in crucial partnerships with Shreyas Iyer (59 off 36) and Axar Patel (52 off 47) to keep India’s chase on track.

Gill earlier bounced back to form in the Ranji Trophy by scoring 102 in Punjab’s sixth-round fixture against Karnataka. He had a good year in Tests in 2024, scoring 866 runs from 12 matches (22 innings) at an average of 43.30 with three hundreds and as many fifties. However, he couldn’t continue his form in the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, scoring just 93 runs from five innings at an average of 18.60.

Meanwhile, having won the Player of the Match award in the first ODI, Gill will be eager to play another match-winning knock in the second ODI on February 9 in Cuttack and help India take an unassailable lead in the series.

Published By:

Rishabh Beniwal

Published On:

Feb 8, 2025