‘Shubman Gill wants to be the next Virat Kohli’

After witnessing a dip in his form on the West Indies tour, India opener Shubman Gill returned to form in the Asia Cup 2023 as India won the tournament. Gill was the top-scorer with 302 runs from six matches including two fifties and century as India clinched a record-extending eighth title.

Former India batting star Suresh Raina feels that Gill will be one of the most important players for India at the World Cup and is destined to have a great tournament.

“He’s been consistent for a year and a half. He struggled in the middle against West Indies, but the way he’s come back and scored good runs in the Asia Cup,” Raina said on JioCinema’s ‘Home of the Blues – India Heroes’. “He is looking positive, using good footwork, and from getting out at 40 against the West Indies, he is now comfortably hitting 50s and even 100s. He’ll be one of the most important players at the World Cup. I know that he wants to be a superstar and wants to be the next Virat Kohli and is in that aura already and after this World Cup, we will be talking about him more often.”

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The former India batter added that Gill could do something like captain Rohit Sharma in the 2019 World Cup. Rohit was the highest run-getter in the 2019 World Cup with 648 runs and he scored five hundreds as well.

“The form he’s playing in with his hand speed – it’s extremely strong. Spinners don’t know where to bowl to him and if fast bowlers don’t swing the ball, he can play those really well with a straight or a flick. His mindset will not stop here. What Rohit Sharma did in the 2019 World Cup; Gill could do the same for India this year. He’ll get 50 overs to bat, so it’s a takeoff point for his batting. I think he’s a born leader and he shows that in his game,” he said.

Raina spoke about the changes Jasprit Bumrah has made in his bowling and how he’s going to perform at the death.

“He has just bowled about 5 or 6 overs till now. Rohit Sharma is with him and monitoring how effective he can be with the new ball. If we want to dismiss Australia’s top order, we have Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah for that. The line and speed with which he’s bowling, it’s swinging fully round the wicket. Even in his run-up, you can see, he has increased it a little bit, but the swing in his finishing line is praiseworthy.

“He’s worked very hard especially with his injuries to his back and knee, after his run-up, the extra four or five yards he’s getting for recovery, his speed and swing have come back. The quickness he’s gotten with the length of his deliveries is very important. Australia’s batting lineup is strong, but they’ll prioritize eating up Bumrah’s overs because he maintains his pace of 140-145. We can see that he has worked really hard and is enjoying it. It looks like he’s about to become ‘Boom Boom Bumrah’ once again.”

Catch all the live action from Australia’s Tour of India, September 22nd onwards, LIVE and exclusive on JioCinema in 11 languages. On linear/ offline TV, the series will be aired live on Colors Tamil (Tamil), Colors Bangla Cinema (Bengali), Colors Kannada Cinema (Kannada), Colors Cineplex Superhits (Hindi), Sports18 – 1 SD, Sports18 – 1 HD (English)