Shubman Gill vows to improve T20 batting: Didn’t meet expectations before World Cup

Shubman Gill said that he did not live up to expectations before the T20 World Cup.

Gill was one of the travelling reserves in the West Indies and USA, where the Men in Blue came up trumps after beating South Africa in the final. Gill made his T20I debut last year and has scored 505 runs from 19 matches with a half-century and three fifties to show for his efforts.

Barring the 126-run knock against New Zealand earlier last year in Ahmadabad, Gill mostly struggled to find his feet. However, he gained some momentum in the series against Sri Lanka where he racked up back-to-back half-centuries. Gill said that he can make use of more opportunities to improve his batting in T20Is.

“My performance in T20Is before the World Cup this year wasn’t how I had expected it to be. Hopefully, going forward, in the upcoming cycle – I think we play 30-40 T20Is [before the next T20 World Cup] – I can improve my performance when it comes to batting, and also [we can improve] as a team,” Gill said in a press conference before the T20I series against Sri Lanka.

I have fun batting with him: Shubman Gill

Gill also opened up on batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the shorter format. Jaiswal was one of the standout batters for India in Zimbabwe after he got scores of 36, 93 not out, and 12 respectively.

“We really enjoy batting with each other. Especially the kind of shots we play, we kind of complement each other. Being a right-left combination, we have had good partnerships in whatever T20Is we have played before; two partnerships have been 150-plus [too]. So we have a great understanding and communication between us, and I have fun batting with him,” Gill added.

India’s tour of Sri Lanka starts on Saturday, July 27 with the opening T20I at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.