"The future is here" - Virat Kohli hails Shubman Gill after his incredible maiden T20I hundred
Star Indian batter Virat Kohli heaped praise on Shubman Gill after the young opener scored his maiden T20I hundred against New Zealand.
Gill scored 126* off just 63 balls and in the process broke Kohli's record for the highest individual T20I score by an Indian, which was 122* against Afghanistan.
There were quite a few doubts raised about Gill's spot in the T20I team as many felt he was more suited to the longer formats. However, in just his sixth T20I innings, the youngster has shown that he has the potential to become an all-format great like the ex-Indian skipper.
Virat Kohli took to social media and posted a photo of him hugging Shubman Gill when the latter scored one of his ODI hundreds. He captioned the post:
"Sitara (Star). The future is here."
Click Here to view Virat Kohli's story.
Only the 5th Indian to score a century in all three formats 🔥
📸: Disney+Hotstar
#crickettwitter #indvsnz https://t.co/iVEqqnRCk6
Shubman Gill might have sealed his place in first Test against Australia
With reports claiming that Shreyas Iyer won't be available for India's first Test against Australia, there has been a debate surfacing about whether the Men In Blue should hand Suryakumar Yadav a Test debut or back Shubman Gill in the middle-order.
While Iyer's availability was crucial for India, he may need more time to recover from his back injury. With Rishabh Pant also set to be absent, the hosts are without arguably their two best players of spin.
Gill's red-hot form in ODIs helped him find a place in T20Is and the hundred in Ahmedabad might have just pushed him ahead of Yadav in the middle-order preference.
The team has reportedly wanted to try Gill in the middle order in the past, and this might be a perfect opportunity for the youngster to make a mark in arguably one of the toughest tests for India at home in red-ball cricket.
India’s Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.