On April 13 at the PCA I.S. Bindra Stadium in Mohali, Gujarat Titans defeated Punjab Kings by 6 wickets in a last-over thriller with David Miller and Rahul Tewatia staying unbeaten at the end. Shubman Gill ended up scoring 67 off 49 deliveries with seven fours and one six for GT in the run chase but Virender Sehwag was having none of it.
He went on to criticise the Indian international for slowing down considerably during the second half of his innings as the fifty-run milestone came nearer. Virender Sehwag was quoted as saying on Cricbuzz, “He (Shubman Gill) scored 67 off 49 balls but when did he reach his fifty? He reached his fifty off maybe 41-42 balls so in 7-8 balls he has scored 17 more runs. The acceleration came there after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have chased maybe 17 instead of 7 in the last over.”
The legendary Indian opener was very categoric in mentioning that when a player thinks about individual milestones ahead of the team’s needs, then they get pegged back by the sport in the worst possible way. He opined, “You can't think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket."
"The moment you think about your own performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can't think like that. If he (Shubman Gill) had shown the same intent and played at close to a strike rate of 200 when he was nearing fifty then he could have reached his milestone a lot earlier and saved more deliveries for his team,” he further continued.
Meanwhile, Gill will be in action for Gujarat Titans against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on April 16 (Sunday). He will be looking forward to improving his strike rate in the middle overs and potentially finishing off the match for his team earlier in the innings if the opportunity presents itself.
