Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill are just 26 runs away from reaching the 2,000-run milestone as an opening pair in ODIs. Of all opening pairs who have batted together in at least 20 one day games, none have maintained an average better than Rohit and Gill.To put that into perspective, they average over 70 at the top in just 29 innings, the next-best pair on the list sits at nearly 59.
Gill believes that he and Rohit are as different as can be, and that is what makes their partnership so potent.
“The way we play the game in the powerplay is quite different to each other,” Gill said.
According to Gill, Rohit Sharma assumes the role of a hitter when the pair is batting together, this allows him to play more risk-free cricket by only hitting along the ground to clear the gaps.
“Rohit bhai likes to play more aerial shots, and tries to hit those big sixes. And I like to play along the ground, and I like to pierce those gaps. In between, if I see the bowler is under pressure, I like to go over the circle. I think that’s the hallmark of us as a pair. We score boundaries with different shots. The bowlers really have to think which areas to target for us, because the areas we play the shots are different from each other.
“It’s a delight to watch [Rohit] from the non-striker’s end. He has his own style and if at all it helps me to find my own groove.”
Gill’s statement is backed by numbers as well. Since the start of this year, Rohit has struck at a whopping 122, in comparison to his younger partner’s more prosaic 94.
Shubman Gill is currently the No. 1 ranked batter in ODIs as per the ICC rankings, and rightly so. He has averaged 101.5 this year in ODIs, already notching up two centuries. There were some concerns looming over his form when he struggled to score down under during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Many feared his batting struggles in the longest format would spill over into his favourite format too, but luckily for India, that was not the case.
Gill believes his rough patch in Tests in Australia was less about a technical flaw and more about a “mental aspect”, but he always knew he will make a strong comeback in white ball cricket.
“I don’t think there was any flaw in my batting in Australia that I couldn’t score runs,” Gill said. “But, definitely, sometimes there is a mental aspect and we start focusing on the batting, which leads us to think there has to be some fault in the batting that the runs aren’t coming.”
He chose to trust his insticts instead of overhauling his game, and his return to form is the evidence that his instincts were spot on.
“But, I don’t think every time it has something to do with batting. It is possible, we are lacking in some other facet. I haven’t worked on any area in particular, but knowing I am going to play white-ball format now and then T20s, so I practised accordingly.”
