Gill finished unbeaten on 101 against Bangladesh and guided India in their chase of 229 in Dubai. He faced 129 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes in his knock and ensured India got home with six wickets and 21 balls to spare. One of his two sixes – a front-foot pull off Tanzim Hasan in the ninth over – went into the second tier of the stands at deep-midwicket.
“Some of the shots he played, the good-length ball he hit and it went into second tier… the big game is at his beck and call,” Manjrekar said. “Can he be better in 50-over cricket as a batter? I don’t think so, what can be better than this?”
“He’s got the class to do it [change gears],” he said. India are blessed with [a top three] who are also Test batters, so they can play different gears. Yashasvi Jaiswal, when he comes in eventually, is also a Test batter. So if the ball is swinging around in overseas conditions, they have the ability to see the new ball through and then handle the various situations. Shubman Gill is that kind of a player, he is not one-dimensional, he has all the gears and we saw him do that today as well. He is a guy at the top of his 50-over-cricket prowess and he does it very calmly. There is an air of dominance and surety with the way he bats and finishes games.”
“The other thing that was noticeable today was generally when he sees the offspinner he steps out and launches it over long-on, midwicket,” Kumble said. “He didn’t want to take the risk perhaps because of the pitch. He felt that that was the riskier option. Although Miraz is someone he would take on – we have seen it even in Test match cricket. He was constantly looking to just ease through and ensure he was there till the end. That was very noticeable even when the [required] run rate dropped a little bit.”
Manjrekar agreed: “And also the ability to nick off singles, keep that scoreboard ticking. It is not that he plays the sweep shot a lot or the dab. He goes very traditional and loves to keep the bat straight. Even when he is playing the pull shot, the bat comes down very straight. A lot of his singles would be back-foot punches to long-on instead of playing just with soft hands. A guy who can get singles at will, can hit a six at will, has got a reasonably good defence for 50-over cricket, he’s the complete player at the moment.”
There would have been slight jitters in the Indian camp when they slipped from 112 for 1 to 144 for 4 in under eight overs but Gill kept his calm and saw the chase through, which earned plaudits from Kumble.
“He’s been brilliant, especially in this format. The elegance and the ease with which he got that hundred on a difficult pitch,” he said. “I don’t think it was a true pitch where the ball was coming on nicely. It was on the slower side and you had to make adjustments, yet he was middling the ball and timing it so well.
“The best part about Shubman Gill was he ensured he saw the game through. It was not like he wanted to get going, get runs [and get out], we have seen that before. That is the maturity he has brought into the game. Hope this is the start of a fantastic season for him and India, because when you play the first match in a tournament and you get a hundred not out and you are there till the end, it augurs well.”
