Virender Sehwag slams Shubman Gill, read why

Virender Sehwag slams on Shubman Gill as the GT was about to ruin their target chase against Punjab Kings. 

Shubman Gill was 17 off 9 balls during the powerplay as Wriddhiman Saha got out for a quickfire 30 off 19. Although batting until the final over of Gujarat Titans’ chase, Gill’s strike rate of nearly 200 was the best he would achieve in the IPL 2023 encounter against Punjab Kings. 

When he was clean bowled in the second ball of the final over while trying a desperate heave throughout the line against Sam Curran, GT still wanted 6 runs to win. 

It would have been a ‘hard pill’ for the reigning champions if it hadn’t been for a Rahul Tewatia lap over the short fine leg, says GT captain Hardik Pandya.

This has been Gill’s batting issue in white-ball cricket, particularly in T20s. Although he has many beautiful strokes to offer and frequently gets off to a wonderful start, his finishing rate is inadequate. 

Worst of all, he tends to slow down greatly in the middle overs, which is detrimental to the team’s advancement.

Former India opener Virender Sehwag brought up Gill’s strike rate following the powerplay. 

It advised him to stop thinking about personal milestones and instead begin approaching the game by the circumstances.

“He scored 67 points off 49 balls, but when did he reach 50?” He got to fifty in about 41-42 balls; therefore, he has 17 more runs in 7-8 balls. 

The acceleration came after he turned fifty. Even if it hadn’t occurred, GT would have chased 17 off 7 in the final over,” Sehwag stated on Cricbuzz.

Sehwag is completely correct. The data support that. Gill was 35 off 22 deliveries at one point, but it took another 18 deliveries to get his fifty at less than a run-a-ball.

“You can’t think we’ll still win the match if I score a fifty.” This is the game of cricket. Cricket will smack you hard if you think about your performance rather than the team. That’s not how you think. 

If he had shown the same commitment and batted at a strike rate close to 200 when he was nearing fifty, he could have hit his milestone much sooner and saved more deliveries for his side,” Sehwag remarked.

Gill agreed that he should have finished the game by staying. “With the old ball, it became slower. As a result, we needed to get a good start in the powerplay. 

When Hardik bhai left, we lost a little steam. “It wasn’t a huge score, but it was critical to rotate the strike and avoid dot balls,” he explained.

The dissatisfaction was also clear in skipper Hardik Pandya’s statements during the post-match presentation. “Honestly, I would not want the game to go this far.” 

This game provided us with a lot to think about… It would have been a difficult pill to swallow if the game had ended differently. “I’d like to finish the game sooner; I’m not a big fan of going to the last over,” he remarked.

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