Shubman Gill On How Cricket Happened In His Life (Source: @IctHardpics/x.com)
Shubman Gill has quickly risen as the face of India’s new cricketing era, tipped to be the next all-format superstar. Taking reins after Rohit Sharma’s Test exit, he has also been appointed as Team India’s vice-captain in the Asia Cup, aiming for a long run.
But how did Gill realize cricket was his true calling? In a recent interaction, Team India’s Test skipper revealed the moment he discovered that the sport was the missing piece in his career puzzle.
How does Gill Find Cricket To Be His True Thing?
Thousands of kids in India went to bed every night with a dream of being a cricketer, but very few develop the courage to turn the dream into reality. Shubman Gill is one of those kids who chased the dream with courage and made it to the national side. Today, his hard work and determination have not only earned him success but also placed him in contention as one of Team India’s future leaders.
But how Gill discovered he is meant to be a cricketer. In a recent interaction on Apple Music’s official YouTube channel, he revealed that a cricket camp wrote his destiny. At the age of just 11, he scored 90 runs against the under-23 boys, which was the turning point of his life.
“Honestly, I realised this is going to be my career when I was 11. Like, a moment happened. There was a camp going on of under-23 Indian fast bowlers, and I was only 11. So they were more than double my age, most of the players there, and they were a batsman short. One of my really good friends, one of my closest friends who I practised with, Khushpreet, was in that camp. He was a fast bowler, and he asked the head coach if he could get me because we were a batsman short and we were playing a match,” he said.
“And then I was batting way down the order, like at number seven or eight. Our first four or five batsmen got out within four or five overs, and then I went in to bat and scored 90-something not out. That moment and that innings, like, it was just a practice match, nothing, but the confidence that moment gave me is what made me realise, okay, this is... this is like, I am meant to do this,” he added.
Gill’s call turned out to be pitch-perfect. It was not a decision that changed his life, but it also helped India to find one of its next-generation superstars of India. From winning the Under-19 World Cup to captaining India in a Test against England, Shubman Gill achieved great things with his own hard work. In the Asia Cup opener, he raised his bat high, and as the stage is set for the electrifying India-Pakistan clash, fans eagerly await watching Gill set the field ablaze.
