Ravi Shastri, the former head coach of India, was very impressed with Gujarat titans (GT) opener Shubman Gill‘s game-winning knock against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the first game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. In the first match, which took place on March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the four-time champions lost by five wickets to the team that was already the champion.
Shastri thinks Gill knows he is a world-class player and that it is now up to him to be consistent in the games to come. In the first game of the tournament, MS Dhoni and his team gave GT a score of 179 runs to beat. GT’s opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad, scored 92 runs off 50 balls. While that was going on, Gill hit a stunning half century (63 runs in 36 balls), and the defending champions beat the goal with five wickets down in 19.2 overs.
“He has a complete game against both spin and pace. He knows that he is a world-class player and that now it is up to him to be consistent,” Ravi Shastri said during a post-match discussion on Star Sports.
Then, the former India head coach praised Gill’s way of scoring runs. The 60-year-old said that Gill’s runs weren’t just made up of fours and sixes, and that when he can’t score fours and sixes, he goes for singles or doubles, which shows that he knows how to run between the wickets.
“The biggest change I’ve noticed in his game is that he’s not hitting as many dot balls. As Irfan Pathan said, when he can’t hit boundaries and sixes, he takes singles and doubles,” the 60-year-old added.
Gill does a great job as Santner: Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri praised Shubman Gill’s plan against CSK’s Mitchell Santner, saying that he did a great job against the experienced bowler.
“He is very good against spin-off, both front foot and back foot. Santner is a very experienced bowler, but he plays Santner very well. You would have seen that from the New Zealand series until now. He doesn’t commit, takes his chance against Santner on the back foot, and goes down the track very quickly when the ball is given little air,” Shastri said.
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