Not an open-and-shut case

Harare, July 15

The competition for the openers’ slots has intensified following India’s T20I series win in Zimbabwe and for contender Shubman Gill that can only be a “good thing”.

Gill, who is expected to open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in the three T20Is in Sri Lanka later this month, was the leading run getter in the five-match series in Harare. He was not part of the T20 World Cup squad in the USA and the Caribbean.

It’s a good thing that everyone’s performing. It shows that everyone is hungry and nobody is ready to take it easy. For any country or board, that’s always a good thing. Shubman Gill

India played as many as three openers in the playing XI and all of them did well.

Gill captained India’s second-string team and played as an opener in all the five matches with Jaiswal joining him at the top from the third game onwards.

For the first two games, he opened with Punjab teammate Abhishek Sharma who scored a hundred and a fifty in his debut series. Among the four openers, Gill had the lowest strike rate, 125.92, compared to Jaiswal’s 165.88 and Abhishek’s 174.64.

“It’s a good thing that everyone’s performing. It shows that everyone is hungry and nobody is ready to take it easy. For any country or board, that’s always a good thing,” said Gill.

Following the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from T20Is, the selectors will have a problem of plenty when it comes to picking the openers for the Sri Lanka series.

“Anyone who got the opportunity grabbed it with both hands. The openers to bowlers to all-rounders to spinners, everyone made a mark and I think the selectors have now seen everything and it’s up to them to name the squad for the next series,” he said.

On captaining the team through the series, Gill said he enjoyed every bit of the challenge. “One thing about captaincy I feel is how much confidence you can show in your players. I try to do that and make them believe that if you try and execute the plans, the results will always follow,” Gill said.

“After losing the first match, we were under a bit of pressure. It’s not easy to play back-to-back games and the series was planned in a way that there were two back-to-back games, a couple of days rest and then again back-to-back games. It’s never easy playing a series like that but I think the way we came back after losing the first T20I was really remarkable.”