New Delhi: India opener Shubman Gill has said that he is keen to improve his T20I performance after being snubbed from the recent T20 World Cup squad following a poor run in the shortest format. Although he was a travelling reserve for the team but didn’t get a single game to play. To heal a few wounds, he led India to a 4-1 series triumph against Zimbabwe earlier this month as the team began planning to defend their T20 World Cup title in 2026.
On the sidelines of the upcoming Sri Lanka series, where Gill is the vice-captain of India for the T20Is and ODIs both, he said, “My performance in T20Is before the World Cup this year wasn’t how I had expected it to be. Hopefully, going forward, in the upcoming cycle… I think we play 30-40 T20Is (before the next T20 WC), I can improve my performance when it comes to batting, and also (improve) as a team.”
With Gill absent in the T20 World Cup 2024 Indian squad, India opened with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Both seniors announced their T20I requirement soon after lifting the trophy and now the responsibility lies on the young shoulders of Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Both have become the first-choice Indian batters for the top order in the current scenario.
On his partnership with Jaiswal, Gill said, “We really enjoy batting with each other. Especially the kind of shots we play, we kind of complement each other. Being a right-left combination, we have had good partnerships in whatever T20Is we have played before; two partnerships have been 150-plus [too]. So we have a great understanding and communication between us, and I have fun batting with him.”
Gill and Jaiswal in ZIM series
With Jaiswal making a late entry in the Zimbabwe series due to late arrival in India from the Caribbean, Abhishek Sharma was shifted down to order to accommodate Jaiswal with Gill to open. Both struck a couple of valuable partnerships in the T20Is as the stand-in captain top-scored with 170 runs at a strike rate of 125.92 in five innings.
Gill was appointed the deputy to Suryakumar Yadav in T20Is and to Rohit Sharma in the ODIs for the limited-overs series in Sri Lanka, notably sidelining Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma, who had struck tons in Zimbabwe.
It would also be for the very first time that Gill would be working with newly-appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir, with whom he has already had two net sessions ahead of the T20I series opener on July 27.
India will play three T20Is against the Lankans in Pallekele on July 27, 28, and 30, and will follow it by three ODIs in Colombo scheduled on August 2, 4, and 7.
Shubman Gill was announced as the vice-captain of both the T20I and ODI touring Indian side for the Sri Lanka white-ball series after recently leading a second-string T20I team to 4-1 success against Zimbabwe. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
