Making a bold prediction, former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer said that the Indian team’s star opening batsman Shubman Gill would be the next big thing after legendary batter Virat Kohli.
Jaffer was impressed by Gill’s recent maiden Test century in the first Test match against Bangladesh in Chattogram on December 16. Gill made it to Team India for the first Test against Bangladesh after skipper Rohit Sharma sustained an injury in his thumb on December 7 and was ruled out of the Test match.
Opening the innings with KL Rahul, Gill scored 110 runs of 152 balls, hitting 10 fours and three sixes. His exceptional knock helped the team set a target of 513 for Bangladesh. India declared after scoring 258/2 in their second innings.
"He's a class player. After Virat Kohli, he'll probably be the next big batsman that's gonna come out of the Indian camp. He's like a three-format player for me," Jaffer said about Gill in a discussion on ESPNCricinfo after the end of the third day’s play.
Speaking about his own performance in the match, Gill said getting the first century in the Test format meant a lot to him, especially since he missed out on opportunities to do so before. According to Gill, his maiden Test century “was long time coming” for the former U-19 World Cup winner. “Today it was all about getting the difficult situation out of the way,” he said.
Gill made his debut in Test matches for India against Australia in 2020.
Despite his performance, Gill is likely to miss the second Test match as Rohit Sharma is believed to have recovered from the injury and will return to the field. However, Jaffer feels that the Indian cricket team could sacrifice a spinner and slot Gill in the middle order. He said Gill had already played in the middle order for his state team in the Ranji Trophy. Hence, it would not pose a problem for the batsman to get used to the middle order. Given that Gill has played as an opener, “it's not a big deal because you're used to playing spin", Jaffer said.
