- Mar 4, 2024
- Jun 9, 2023
India’s tour of the West Indies came to a culmination. But, it was the ODI drubbing that had everyone take notice. The Men in Blue was missing nearly all of its more experienced players, and a young squad went on to sweep the series. Shubman Gill was one player who stood out for the entire ODI leg of the tour. His consistency and dominating performances ensured India’s clean sweeping over West Indies.
Gill had faced quite an amount of criticism because of his low strike rate in his career. When Gill was quipped about the same, the youngster replied that he prefers to remain headstrong even though questions like these will always exist.
“I feel questions will always be raised, but I don’t really care about what people are saying as long as I’m able to contribute to my team’s success, and as long as I am doing what my team management and my captain expect of me,” the opening batter told Telegraph India in a recent interaction. He came back to play in white-ball international games after an extended hiatus of more than 18 months. However, he was the driving force behind the national side’s dominant performance in the three ODIs in the Caribbean.
There were times when skipper Shikhar Dhawan failed to score big, but Gill handled the pressure with minimal fuss. The youngster from Punjab, who amassed 205 runs at an average of 102.50 in the three games, ended up the highest run-scorer in the series. His performance was so strong that he nearly reached his first ODI century. India’s innings ended due to bad weather in the third ODI and he was batting on 98* runs by then.
He added: “I think it gives me kind of an edge in some way. But it will also be important for me to keep backing up these performances and keep being consistent, and keep scoring as many runs as possible for my team” Due to an impressive show, he was named in India’s squad that will be touring Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series starting August 18. This time again, Dhawan will be the captain of the team. The Indian selectors gave rest to senior members due to a hectic Asia Cup schedule later this month.