Gujarat Titans’ eight-wicket loss to Punjab Kings did not hurt them much as they’ve still managed to hold the top spot in the IPL 2022 points table but a defeat as convincing as the one on Tuesday night, will post a few questions for Hardik Pandya and the team management. First, Pandya won the toss and opted to bat, something teams have avoided given the amount of dew that settles in during the second half of the game. Next, the opening pair of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha have been quiet more often than they have fired. (Also Read: ‘When Dhoni took the leash off, Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t set field in pressure situations’ – Brad Hogg on CSK captaincy)
In fact, Gill, since registering back-to-back scores of 84 and 96 was expected to light up the tournament, but the 22-year-old has been more of a whimper than a bang ever since. With scores of 7, 13, 0, 7, 22, 31 and 9, Gill has been a flop at the top of the order. Weighing in on Gill’s string of scores, former India batter Ajay Jadeja feels it is about time that the GT youngster carries on and converts starts into big scores.
“He needs to spend more time at the crease. The two good innings he played; he had never shown that kind of an innings before. Otherwise, this has been the story of his career in the last 2-3 years. Has talent, has style, but he’s been scoring 20, 30, 25, 40… these are signs that you need to take it forward. The Indian selectors have a long list of names to choose from so in order to score 70, 80, you need to face at least 60 balls or so,” Jadeja said on Cricbuzz.
The former India captain reckons Gill can learn a few things from KL Rahul as he sees some similarities between the two. Rahul, also an opener, has once again burned up the charts in IPL 2022 scoring 451 runs from 10 matches at an average of 56.38 with two centuries and two fifties.
“He can take a leaf out of KL Rahul’s book. Because his style and KL Rahul’s style… I’m not comparing the two, but there is a similarity in the way these two batters play. If he has to learn from, then KL Rahul is right there. Not too far,” added Jadeja.
