Carrara(Gold Coast): Shubman Gill is “ridiculously talented” and he should be able to make adjustments while navigating his way through the different formats and score big runs for India, feels former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson.
Gill, India’s Test and ODI captain, has not scored big in the ongoing white-ball series against Australia. He made 10, 9, and 24 in the three one-dayers, 37 not out, 5 and 15 in the three T20 Internationals so far.
He came to Australia after scoring a hundred and a fifty in three innings in two Tests at home against the West Indies.
“It definitely is a challenge, and the more you do it, the better you get at really understanding the little adjustments that you have to make to your technique, to your game plan, your mindset around each format to be able to then get into the best version of you every time you have to make that adjustment,” Watson said while speaking to reporters.
After a forgettable run in his maiden ODI captaincy assignment, Gill once again faced a similar challenge. He had a couple of days to tweak his approach from ODIs to T20Is. In the high-scoring demand of the T20 format, Gill’s inconsistent patch elongated in the first three fixtures. With 57 runs and two games to play for, Watson put his weight behind the India vice-captain to conjure a solution and find the purple patch.
“It does take time, and it’s through trial and error that you really realise exactly what you need to do to make those adjustments, and playing in different conditions as well. Shubman Gill is a ridiculously talented batter. He’s got an amazing technique,” Watson said.
“It’s not going to take him long at all to be able to really navigate his way through the different formats because when someone is as highly skilled as he is, it’s not going to take him too long,” Watson added.
With the series tied at 1-1, India and Australia will grapple for a valuable lead in the fourth game, scheduled to commence on Thursday at Carrara Oval, and Gill would be keen on leaving an impression by piling up runs on the board.
India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.
