Shubman Gill, the opener for Gujarat Titans (GT), has excelled at the plate for his team in the current season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He has scored 851 runs in 16 games at an average of 60 points and a strike rate of 156 points. The 23-year-old’s season totals include three tons and four half-centuries.

Gill passed Faf Du Plessis (730 runs) and took over as the leading run-getter in the IPL 2023 with his third century, which came in Qualifier 2 against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

As GT posted an impressive 233/3 and then held MI to 171, the right-handed batter hit seven fours and ten sixes.

Now, Gill will play when Gujarat plays Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2023 championship game in Ahmedabad on Sunday, May 28. From 2018 to 2021, he was a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team, but prior to the 2022 season, GT signed him.

We examine some issues that Gill would have resolved for KKR had the team kept him on board in retrospect

1. At the top of the order, Gill would have offered stability.

The lack of consistency from KKR’s opening pair was one of their IPL 2023 issues. At the top of the order, they experimented with different lineups, but aside from Jason Roy, none of the others had much of an impact.

N Jagadeesan had a forgettable season in contrast to Roy, who contributed 285 runs in eight games at an average of 35.63 and an impressive strike rate of 151.59. In six games, he was only able to score 89 runs at an average of 14 points and a strike rate of 109 points.

Likewise erratic was Rahmanullah Gurbaz. He scored 227 runs in 11 games with an average of 20 points and a strike rate of 133 points. Near the end of KKR’s IPL 2023 season, he was even promoted to the middle order, but little seemed to change for his situation.

2. At the top of the order, Kolkata also tried Mandeep Singh and Venkatesh Iyer, but with little success.

Gill’s presence at the top of the lineup would have given the batting order stability. The team would have been free to relax in the knowledge that they had at least one extremely reliable opener. In the IPL 2023, this most definitely wasn’t the case for them.

3. Depending on the circumstance, he may have changed his approach.

The middle overs’ lack of acceleration was another problem area for KKR in IPL 2023. After the powerplay, they had to be relatively cautious because they frequently had bad starts.

When Jason Roy and Venkatesh Iyer performed well, KKR gained some momentum. However, Rinku Singh was primarily attempting to match things up. Fortunately, he still succeeded in helping his team win a few games by playing some outstanding batting.

Since Gill has been playing in games that he has his eye on, his presence would have made a significant difference. He has been batting for 20 overs. The batter who personifies elegance has been amazing because of his ability to switch gears.

In Qualifier 2 against the Mumbai Indians, the right-handed batter was 37 after facing 26 balls, according to his batting graph. He, however, completely lost control in the following few overs and sped to 100 off 49 balls.

Gill is virtually unstoppable when he’s on, and he was the kind of player KKR needed to strengthen their batting.

4 He would have given KKR more freedom to choose from options abroad.

There were only two other international spots in the starting XI for KKR because they used Roy and Gurbaz as two of their opening options. For the remaining two overseas positions, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell of the West Indies were considered a lock.

Gill could have made a significant difference once more in this situation. The young player opening the batting would have given Kolkata flexibility with their international options. For KKR in the IPL 2023, players like Tim Southee, David Wiese, and Lockie Ferguson might have played in more games.

Gill scored 1417 runs in 58 games while playing for Kolkata, averaging 31.48, with a 123 strike rate, and 10 fifty-sevens.

Although the numbers weren’t particularly impressive, one has to wonder if KKR is still a little sorry about letting go of the batter who has recently developed into a run machine.

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