India and Gujarat Titans batsman Shubman Gill has stated that he is willing to play in the middle order for the national team in order to gain more opportunities. The 23-year-old, best known as an opener, has had few opportunities to wear the Indian jersey across all three formats, but has not been able to establish himself as a first-choice player in any of them and has been looking for roles in the middle-order.
Gill was given a chance in the senior side, making the playing eleven against England in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston back in July. However, he could not make any impact whatsoever, returning poorly with scores of 17 and 4 in his two innings.
His performance was particularly disappointing in a game that witnessed eight scores in excess of 50, including five hundreds, two of which came in the fourth innings. Resultantly, England won by seven wickets.
Gill got a few more chances in the white-ball formats, playing against Zimbabwe and the West Indies in several ODIs. The Gujarat Titans opener was mighty impressive in both series, even picking up a man of the series award. Gill got three scores of more than 80, including an excellent 130 against Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, his performances against South Africa in the three-match ODI series, where India tested out their bench strength, were not upto the mark, getting just 31 runs in two innings. Gill fell to Kagiso Rabada on both occasions and is now not in the grand scheme of things as far as Indian international side is concerned.
“My game all-round is very good and I rotate the strike well against spinners. So even if I get a chance in the middle order, I am ready for that. If they [the team management] are looking at me in the middle order, then I am ready for it. When I scored that hundred in Zimbabwe, I was batting at one down, I didn’t open. So, one down or two down, whatever the team needs, I am ready,”
Gill said.
The Punjab batsman also signed for English County side Glamorgan and played a few games in his first season.
Gill felt that the exposure he got in the English domestic circuit was very important and added that intense concentration and mental balance was required to play in England and was different from anything he had experienced before.
“In England, you have to concentrate all the time. In those conditions, sometimes you feel you are set, but one spell can throw you off. It’s not like that in India.
Here once you reach 40-50, there is a pattern to bat. There is no such pattern in England. You could be batting at 110 and are still not set. No matter what score you are on, you have to be careful [on] every ball.”
the player said as he spoke of his time in the English domestic circuit.
Gill was sensational for the Titans in the IPL 2022, playing a few fantastic innings as he combined with veteran Wriddhiman Saha at the top. He scored 483 runs at an average of nearly 35 as he played an instrumental role in his side’s victory in their first-ever season in the Indian Premier League. Gill revealed that the red-ball format was the one closest to his heart and that he is working towards making inroads into the side at the earliest.
“The red-ball format is very important to me. You get a different type of confidence when you do well in red-ball cricket. I am ready to bat wherever there’s a vacant spot in the side.”
Gill concluded.
