IPL 2020: Season For Shubman Gill to Flourish

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Updated: January 10, 2020
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Shubman Gill is in news for all the wrong reasons at the moment after hurling abuses to umpire Paschim Pathak who gave him out controversially in the Ranji Trophy game against Delhi and later had to overturn his decision. Gill had to bear the consequences of his act as well, as his match fees was upheld by the officials. The Delhi team led by Nitish Rana, his KKR teammate walked off the pitch after Gill’s dramatics and the game was held up for almost 10 minutes. Thus he did not have the best of starts to the new year. Shubman Gill in IPL 2020 is expected to learn from his mistakes as he is set to play his third season with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

However, Shubman Gill in IPL 2020 has a chance to put everything aside and reply to his critics with runs from his bat in the upcoming season. He was retained by KKR ahead of the IPL 2020 auctions and in this season he will certainly have a bigger role to play ever since he joined the squad. Chris Lynn’s release by KKR has now opened up a chance for Gill to score big for his franchise. Having batted majorly down the order in his first two IPL editions, this season gives him a chance to open or probably play at number three. The KKR management surely should have a defined role for the youngster who has a lot of potential and its time now that he translates his potential into performance.

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IPL Career So Far

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Having made his IPL debut with KKR in 2018, Gill has played 27 matches and is one short of 500 runs in the tournament. In 2019, he scored 296 runs with a career-best score of 76 which came while opening the batting against Mumbai Indians. By virtue of his 76 runs, KKR scored 232 and won the game by 34 runs at Eden Gardens. He scored three fifties last season all of which came at the top of the order. This gives a fair idea of the batsman that Gill is. Shubman Gill in IPL 2020 though should be a different proposition. He should return as a more experienced player this season. There are high chances that he will play all the matches and this is where he should take his chances. He showed glimpses of promise in the first two editions, something which helped him get into the Indian team.

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Gill’s Role in IPL 2020

He is someone who needs time to settle down after which he can up the scoring rate. Also, he does not possess the power of Andre Russell or Eoin Morgan. He is a timer of the ball which is why he should bat at the top of the order to set the base for the power-hitters to finish the game off. Batting at the top of the order will also give him maximum deliveries to face which was not the case most of the time in his two previous seasons. Being an Indian youngster, eyes will be on Gill’s progress as well. He is one of the young prospects, who the BCCI see as one for the future.

He is currently playing for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 and has scored a hundred against Vidarbha in Nagpur. He is among the young crop of Indian batsmen for the future which includes names like Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer. The other three are rated above Gill by the cricket experts around the world and the Punjab batsman having got his first taste of international cricket should let his bat do the talking. IPL 2020 thus is the ideal platform for Gill to flourish and take his game up by a few notches.

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Interestingly, former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir nominated Gill as the captain of the side in IPL 2020 ahead of the auctions after there were question marks as to who would captain the franchise in the new IPL season. Dinesh Karthik was re-elected as the captain of the side after the auctions, however, Gambhir still showed his support for the youngster.