In 2019, Shubman Gill won the IPL Emerging Player of the Year award. By the time the delayed season came along this year, he had been made part of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) leadership group by new coach Brendon McCullum. At 21, Gill is KKR’s second-youngest player, but he is used to being heard. In 2018, he was vice-captain in India’s under-19 World Cup winning squad.
“Being part of the leadership group means that your opinion matters to the team. That is what is happening at KKR and that is what would happen at the under-19 World Cup,” says Gill in an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times from Abu Dhabi. His job in the KKR leadership group is “to be the voice of the people who have just come into the squad and are a bit shy to directly go to the coach or the captain.”
“The way I am getting out is something I have to work on.” It’s a pointer to why he gets a seat in a group that has Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins, England’s World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan and KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik. It is also proof of how far he has come since being brought by KKR for Rs 1.8 crore in 2018. And how much more there is to Gill than being a batsman Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar and everyone else in between has a lot of time for.
In 2018, after Gill made a 36-ball 57 at Eden Gardens in a winning cause, Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said: “This was his first real opportunity and he played a big part in the win.” Ahead of the away game to Kings XI in 2019, McCullum, then a television interviewer, told Gill he was in “awe” of his class. Asked how he rated Gill’s innings after their 92-run unbeaten stand that fetched a seven-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Morgan said: “Delightful, really… Watching him playing against a very experienced Sunrisers attack was a joy.”
