The boy from Jaimal Singh Wala village in Punjab’s Firozpur could score 10,000 runs
By Ajay Singh
CHANDIGARH: Considering his talent and the way he is using it to pile up runs, Shubman Gill is set to become the biggest cricketer to ever ererge from Punjab.
No doubt, Punjab have produced the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, Navjot Sidhu and Harbhajan Singh in the past.
But it looks like that the 23-year-old Shubman Gill is destined to touch even greater heights. He has scored as many as five centuries in all three formats of cricket in the last three months – only one among the five Indian abtters to do so.
As cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar says, this Punjab boy could easily make 8000-10000 runs if Shubman maintains his current tempo of scoring.
Gavaskar, who was the first batter to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, says Gill has all the skills to become a legend.
“He has a lot of time. When he plays a defensive shot, the way he bends forward, even against Mitchell Starc… he presents a straight face of the bat and plays a forward defence, it was so pleasing to see. It shows that he has the confidence. He doesn’t only play on the backfoot. His foot moves forward, and he has a solid defence, not just a solid attack. And in Test cricket, you need that,” Gavaskar said after the Ahmedabad Test of the just concluded four-Test series between India and Australia.
As Gill scored 123 runs in the first Indian ininngs of that Test, Gavaskar said, “Shuffling back and forth against pace bowlers isn’t very easy. But he (Gill) picks the lines and lengths really well. Kisi bhi ballebaaz ke paas agar time ho, usne agar apne career ko sambhaala, toh aage jaake 8-10,000 run aram se kar lega (If a batter has time, if he keeps his career in the right direction, he can easily score 8-10,000 runs in Tests).”
Gavaskar says Gill is here to stay for a long time.
“He’s only 23, he’s young and with the kind of form he has shown in pretty much all the formats, scoring centuries in ODIs, T20Is and Test, it appears that Rohit Sharma’s partner for the next few years is sealed,” says Gavaskar.
Gill burst on the international cricket scene at the age of 18 when he became the highest scorer for India in the U19 World Cup in 2018. Many saw him as a new prodigy.
Former New Zealand pacer and current commentator Simon Doull, who watched Gill’s potential in the U19 World Cup, rated him above all fellow Indian players.
Virat Kohli, under whom Gill made his ODI debut in New Zealand in 2019, said of the youngster at that time, “I saw him bat in the nets and I was like wow I was not even 10 percent as talented when I was 19.”
Current Indian captain Rohit Sharma called Gill the `future’ in a tweet in January this year.
When Gill tweeted to congratulate his captain on his birthday, Rohit tweeted back, “Thanks future.”
How did this young lad from a little known village of Jaimal Singh Wala in Jalalabad tehsil of Firozpur district in Punjab become such a sensation?
His farmer father Lakhsinder Singh says, “He used to play cricket alone at the age of 3. Children request toys at that age, but Shubman never requested them.”
The little boy’s toys were a bat and a ball. “He would sleep with a bat and ball,” says his father.
The father says he built a cricket pitch on his property for Shubman to practice. He says he would invite his farm labourers to bowl at Shubman. Anyone who got his son’s wicket would get 100 rupees!
The father was so desperate to see his son succeed as a cricketer that he decided to relocate his family to Mohali for his sake.
“We moved to Mohali in April 2007 to help Shubman’s cricketing career.”
Every time Shubman goes out to bat, he knows that his father is a hard task master and he won’t be easily satisfied by whatever his son achieves on the field.
“My father has been my primary coach,” says Gill.
NEXT: Read what Chris Gayle said about Sachin Tendulkar
