Indian opener Shubman Gill has shown that he used to be a part-time bowler while his Under-16 and Under-19 days before he was warned for suspect bowling work. The 21-year-old now wants to take up bowling again and give off the confidence that he might become ‘pretty good at it.
Shubman Gill is currently developing his skills for IPL 2021 with his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. Gill has been seen bowling off-spin in the nets for the group. In the previous year, the franchise also released a video of Shubman Gill trying his hand at standard spin against assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.
In a meeting with PTI on Sunday, Shubman Gill said in that respect:
‘In U-16 and U-19, I used to bowl a lot, but I was warned for a suspect action in U-19, then I kind of stopped bowling. Let’s see, you never know I might pick it up and be determined to bowl. I think I should be able to do a pretty good job,”
Although Shubman Gill hasn’t bowled in international cricket yet, his batting has been nothing short of excellent. In his debut Test series in Australia, Gill scored 259 runs at an average of 51.8 in 3-games.
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He went through a strong patch against England in the home Test series, picking up only 119 runs at an average of 19.83. But the youngster is likely to come good for KKR in IPL 2021.
Also read:- “This is the last of the flat wickets” – Ollie Pope shows Virat Kohli’s warning while the first Test
“Strike rate is overrated” – Shubman Gill
Opening the batting for KKR in IPL 2020, Shubman Gill scored 440 runs at a good average of 33.85. Although, his strike rate (just under 118) was on the lower side, which prompted judges to question his ability to get the squad off to brisk starts in the brief format of the game.
However, dismissing perceptions about his inefficiency to flourish in T20 cricket, Shubman Gill said that strike rate is ‘overrated’ and adapting to various match situations is more important for a batsman.
“I think strike rate is kind of overrated. It’s all about how you adapt to a certain situation. If the team demands you to play with a strike rate of 200, you should be able to do it. If the team demands you to play at a strike rate of 100, you should be able to do it. It’s just about adapting to the match situation. There shouldn’t be a certain pattern to your game, where you are only able to play one kind of game and not able to adapt to different situations,” said Shubman Gill.
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Also read:- “This is the last of the flat wickets” – Ollie Pope shows Virat Kohli’s warning while the first Test