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Virat Kohli Appreciating Shubman Gill Evokes Tendulkar's 2011 Acknowledgment

image-lovc6uifVirat Kohli and Shubman Gill at the 2023 World Cup (x.com)

Shubman Gill gatecrashed Netherlands attack with a 30-ball half-century at the top of the order. Turning up for his side in their final league fixture of the 2023 World Cup, Gill’s batting bombardment and subsequent dismissal was met with a ripple of applause at a packed M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Moreover, even incoming batter Virat Kohli patted his young teammate on the back, thus acknowledging his blazing powerplay start for the Indian team. Interestingly, Kohli’s acknowledgment of Gill was reminiscent of a certain Sachin Tendulkar moment from the 2011 World Cup.

Virat Kohli subtly passes ODI batting baton to Gill

Indian batting legend Virat Kohli patted Shubman Gill on the back after the latter made his way back to the pavilion carrying 51 runs to his name. It is worth noting that Gill was recently crowned as the world number one batter on the ICC ODI rankings, taking over the mantle from Pakistan batting maverick Babar Azam.

The young opener is already touted as the “next big thing” of Indian cricket, much like how Kohli was labelled as such by the media during the final days of Sachin Tendulkar’s storied career.

Moreover, Kohli’s appreciation for Gill after the latter’s World Cup 2023 trashing of Netherlands was quite reminiscent to that of Tendulkar patting his teammate and protégé back during the 2011 World Cup in India.

Sachin Tendulkar played the last of his 463 ODI matches for India in 2012, after having claimed nearly every batting milestone to his name, including the records of scoring most runs and producing most centuries in the format.

Over the next decade, his successor Virat Kohli broke or levelled several of Tendulkar’s batting records, including the milestones of being the fastest in history to get to 10000, 11000 and 12000 ODI runs; apart from levelling up with the ‘Master Blaster’ in the centuries department as well.

While Shubman Gill has only started out in the format, the young batting prodigy is already on course for setting up his own heights in international cricket. Quite recently, he became one of the fastest Indians ever to get to number one ODI rankings as a batsman, achieving the feat after just his 41st innings in the format.