Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes that young Indian opener Shubman Gill has done an injustice to his abilities after his poor performance for the team across all formats in recent times. The 24-year-old was dropped from the playing 11 for India’s second T20I against Afghanistan in favour of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Gill played as a replacement T20I opener for the series opener due to the unavailability of Jaiswal. Shumban Gill seemed in great touch, but the opener failed to capitalize on his start, falling for 23 off 12 balls in the series opener.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Salman Butt believes Shubman Gill has not performed to the best of his abilities for the team, citing his performance against Afghanistan in the first T20I, in which he played a loose shot after a good start, and wants him to play on the merits of the ball rather than trying to do too much.
“I think Shubman Gill has done an injustice to his talent in the last few games. He is too good a player and has too much skill for the kind of hurry that he has been showing. He scores 20-odd and then plays a loose shot. This is what he wasn’t doing when he had a successful year”.
“He just needs to bat and bat without doing anything special. He needs to realize that even if you are the best batter in the world, you can’t play every ball on your own terms. You have to react to the ball instead of dictating it,” Salman Butt said.
Following the 2022 T20 World Cup, Shubman Gill was widely regarded as India’s first-choice opener in T20Is in the absence of Rohit Sharma. He had a fantastic IPL 2023 season, hitting 890 runs at a strike rate of 157.80, which strengthened his reputation and cemented his place in the team. However, the Punjab-born youngster failed to make an impact for the team in recent times, struggling to find his form.
Left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal bolstered his selection cause with a game-winning knock against Afghanistan. Big-hitting Jaiswal hammered 68 off 34 balls to help India establish a commanding 2-0 lead over Afghanistan in Indore. Jaiswal is expected to open the innings alongside Rohit in the third and final T20I of the series on Thursday.