Gujarat Titans’ opening batsman Shubman Gill attributed his recent success in international and franchise cricket to his in-depth understanding of his own game and knowledge of himself as a player.
He played a pivotal role in Gujarat Titans’ victory over Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL by smashing a 52-ball-104, with eight sixes, which helped successfully chase down 198 in just 19.1 overs on Sunday.
“I know my game… for any player, it’s important to know who you are,” Gill, who has scored 680 runs [50 short of Faf du Plessis’ 730] and is a leading candidate for the ‘Orange Cap’, said after his team’s victory.
“The new ball was holding on a bit. It was getting wet due to the dew. I thought Vijay Shankar was trying to go too hard. Once he found the momentum, he hit it a long way,” he added.
Gill is confident in his team’s bowling attack and warns Chennai Super Kings that they have a great chance to challenge the team of MS Dhoni “on that wicket” at Chepauk in the playoffs.
“I think we have a great bowling attack for that [Chennai] wicket. It’s going to be an exciting one, playing against Chennai in Chennai. Hopefully, we’ll make it to the final for the second time,” Gill said at the post-match presentation.
The man of the match highlighted, “It’s all about getting a start and converting it into a big one. Thankfully, it’s working out for me in the business end. You have to keep applying yourself, that’s important.
GT skipper Hardik Pandya also praised the calmness of his teammates in the dugout.
“The calmness which the boys had was terrific. We wanted to keep the momentum going. We have ticked a lot of boxes.”
On Gill, the captain said, “He knows when he plays those cricketing shots, it’s a different Shubman Gill. He doesn’t give any chance and that gives confidence to the other batter as well.”
He added, “We would have taken 197 at the start, but we didn’t bowl well. Special innings from Kohli, but we went too early for the death overs.
“I can’t ask anything better from the boys. Last year, everything went well for us. We were expecting people to challenge us. The boys showed tremendous character.”
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis expressed his disappointment after the defeat.
“Very disappointed. We played a really strong team tonight, an amazing hundred from Shubman. It was really wet in the second innings.
“It was wet in the first innings as well, but there wasn’t a lot of grip in the second innings and also we had to change the ball quite a few times during the second innings.
“Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance, and I thought that was a good score, but Shubman played incredibly well to take the game away from us.”
Dinesh Karthik’s poor form with the bat weighed heavily on RCB’s chances this season, and on that, Du Plessis said, “Last year DK had a purple patch and was finishing games left, right and center, but this season, it wasn’t to be.
“And if you see the teams that succeed, they have some good hitters at five at six probably six and seven.”