Super ‘Gill’man Sharpens Third Arrow To His Bow

Delivering in three formats is cricket’s greatest challenge. Not even the best of the modern players were up to scratch in this with Virat Kohli being the one exceptional performer across formats when he had, at one point in his career, an average above 50 in all three forms of the game. The young batsman who seems to be following in his footsteps has a lot to prove that he is capable of handling the triple burden. But that he is trying became clear in the short innings he played before lightning and rain came to disrupt the last of the five T20Is in Australia. Shubman Gill played a gem of an innings, filled with finesse and flair more than premeditated big hitting. He drove through the gaps, particularly through cover, with such elan as to show he can beat the short game without compromising on the technique that has made him a big run maker in ODIs and a performer beginning to match potential with form in Test matches. Gill was pleasing to the eye even as he was tending to the scoreboard without having to hit the ball in anger as his opening partner Abhishek Sharma was aiming to do at the other end. Gill’s classy effort was cut short by the weather, but he has shown the signs that he will chart his own path in T20Is. Soon, probably very soon, Gill might be seen leading Team India in all three formats.