Why 2023 Will Also Always Be Remembered For Shubman Gill’s Prowess?

He’s not called the Prince for nothing. In a world serenaded by the immortal King Kohli, Shubman Gill as the Prince of batting is a mortal on his way to achieving cricketing immorality. 

At least, that is what is evident with the way the young batsman’s career is progressing. 

Four years back in the day, he was just a young lad in the Under 19 World Cup, someone who smoked heaps of runs and emerged on the winning side. 

In the current context of Indian cricket, Shubman, whose name rhymes with superhuman, is surely playing like one. 

The cricket bat in his hand may be wooden but it offers golden dust to bowlers who are slammed and often with remorselessness. 

But this king operates a touch differently. He bats and bats and doesn’t seem to break into a sweat. 

At a very early stage in his growing career, Shubman Gill from Punjab who’s becoming one of the mainstays of indian batting, the right hander has demonstrated the ability to stay unaffected by the attack he’s playing against. 

His best year yet and this, lest it is forgotten, is just the start of his glowing career, proved to be 2023. 

How so? In an extraordinary year for Indian men’s cricket that won the Asia Cup and where it went nearly all the way towards conquering the World Cup trophy, Gill blazed a trail of sorts. 

The importance of being Shubman Gill in 2023 ODI’s

He fired a glittery double century in his one day career; the central highlight of his staggering 1,584 one day runs in 2023 was the 208 that came against New Zealand. 

The big batsmen like to begin big and early into a calendar year. The starts for Gill this year read as follows: 

He began his one day campaign this year with a 70 against Sri Lanka that was followed by a quick fire 21 off 12 against the same opponent and then that 116 off just 97 deliveries. The fourth one day knock of his 2023 culminated in a daddy century; the 208 against New Zealand came off just 149 odd deliveries. 

As New Zealand were taken to pieces, a young Indian batsman was carving his own destiny. 

Surely, inconsistencies in Test cricket could soon be identified and rectified and Gill won’t be doing anyone else, but himself a favour in doing so.  

But his game awareness coupled by the ability to perform under pressure really makes him a treat to watch. 

His delicate meets stylish strokes square on the off side have sort of rescued the classic right hander’s modus operandi on the 22 yards in that it’s often believed that the right handed batsmen favour just the on side. 

Well when Shubman Gill gets going on the off side, the game’s bowlers tend to go off from their plans. Technically correct and not risking his wicket by participating in blind hitting or courtesy strikes of bewilderment, there’s a method to madness with which the lanky batsman operates.   

If anything, Gill’s rise in caliber and stature in the contemporary firmament of indian cricket makes the present scheme of batting even more strong as if it already wasn’t. 

Let’s look what this does to the post Kohli and Rohit generation; it actually makes Gill the central pivot around the likes of an Iyer, Rahul and Pant and forget not, there’s Kishan in there as well. 

Then there’s Sanju and Suryakumar. If for instance, Virat and Rohit, the two timeless heroes of Indian cricket aren’t even playing a white ball contest, even then India has six strong front line batters.  What’ll further come in handy, one notes, will be Gill spending more time at the wicket. Don’t you think? 

Already, 19 out of his 44 one day innings have either culminated in a fifty plus or a score between fifty and hundred. That’s some solid conversation ratio, right? But just imagine all that Shubman Gill, a player who plays all three formats already, stands to achieve should he focus even harder and continue to grow in confidence? May 2024 see him take his career graph and most importantly, his nation to even greater heights.