Shubman Gill reveals anecdotes with Rohit Sharma, Pat Cummins ahead of WTC final

India’s youngest batting star Shubman Gill has revealed some of his thinking about the game and many anecdotes in his short playing career. 

Gill made his Test debut against Australia late last year and rose in reputation after playing some quality innings to help India win the series down under.

However, revealing about his batting and the game, Gill said that he has been a reluctant batsman to take the strike on the first ball of the innings. He said that first Mayank Agarwal and then Rohit Sharma stepped up to help him calm the nerves by taking the strike and allowing him a sighter from the non-striker’s end.

"Never! (if he will ever take the strike on the first ball) I remember in my debut innings that Mayank was kind enough to say 'Okay, I know you are under pressure so I will take the strike' and he took the strike in both innings. And then in the next match, I was supposed to take the strike but Mayank didn't play, Rohit bhai played (chuckles). Rohit himself said: 'I know you are a youngster, so I will take the strike.' From there on, he took the strike every game until that match against England. I don't know why I told him that I will take the strike and obviously, that didn't work for me, I got out on the 3rd or 4th ball on a duck. But yes, that won't happen again anytime soon," Shubman Gill said on The Grade Cricketer's YouTube channel.

Gill also opened up on the banter between him and the leader of the Australian bowling attack and his Kolkata Knight Riders teammate Pat Cummins. Discussing the point of their banter, Gill said that Cummins had during the IPL 2020 said that Australia would be ready with the chin music once India will come to play the Test series. However, when the table was turned at the end of the series with Indian clinching the trophy on the back of an explosive 91 from Gill, he reminded Cummins and his team of having the ‘dance moves’ ready for their ‘chin music.’

"So, I and Patty were there in KKR. We were teammates there and had a pretty good bond. I remember he gave an interview to the KKR management saying that ‘we’ll have the chin music going on’ or something like that. And then when I was batting, he was continuously trying to bounce me and I was leaving them," Gill added.

"After the match, there was a press conference where I said ‘if they have their chin music, we know the moves to dance to that’. So the banter was going on and he would go ‘where are your dance moves now?"

Gill could not replicate his performances in Australia in the series against England at home and in the IPL 2021 and he would be eager to get back among runs in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand.