Indian opener Shubman Gill recently opened up about his hilarious chats with fellow openers Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal. Gill recalled how both senior openers gave him the benefit of being the junior-most member of the side by taking the strike on the first ball in his maiden Test series against Australia.
Shubman Gill then recalled the incident where he took the strike during the second test against England and was dismissed for a duck. Shubman Gill said he still doesn’t have an explanation for why he did it but asserted that he wouldn’t repeat the same mistake anytime soon.
Never! (if he will ever take the strike on the first ball) I remember in my debut innings that Mayank was kind enough to say ‘Okay, I know you are under pressure so I will take the strike’ and he took the strike in both innings. And then in the next match, I was supposed to take the strike but Mayank didn’t play, Rohit bhai played (chuckles).
Rohit himself said: ‘I know you are a youngster, so I will take the strike.’ From there on, he took the strike every game until that match against England. I don’t know why I told him that I will take the strike and obviously, that didn’t work for me, I got out on the 3rd or 4th ball on a duck. But yes, that won’t happen again anytime soon,” Shubman Gill said on The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel.
The opener also revealed that they decided moments before the start of the game as to who is going to take strike.
“Honestly, it can happen anytime. Like once, I remember we were almost in the middle, we were tapping our bats and I asked Rohit ‘Can you please take the strike?’. Because Mitch [Mitchell Starc] was going on his run-up and I was trying to search the non-striker’s end (laughs).”
WTC Final Opening Combination
It's Day 2 of the intra-squad match simulation.
After @RealShubmanGill got a steady start with 85 off 135 deliveries, @RishabhPant17 found his groove with a 121* off 94 deliveries.@ImIshant leads the pack with 3/36 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/YRNsVjweDt
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 12, 2021
Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma joined hands as openers for the first time during India’s historic tour of Australia and even notched some good partnerships. However, just when it seemed like the opening issue had been settled, Gill had a poor series against England at home.
It is almost certain that the duo will be seen opening the batting in the WTC Final which will take place on Friday. Shubman Gill also scored a 135-ball 85 in an intra-squad match simulation recently, thus cementing his place even further.
