Shubman Gill, Gujarat Titans (GT) batter, has been criticized severely by former India opener Virender Sehwag for his poor strike rate in the recent IPL 2023 match between Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings. GT won the match by 6 wickets with Gill scoring a half-century in the chase.
Sehwag pointed out that Gill hit his half-century in 40 balls and accelerated only in the next nine balls before getting out for 67. The former cricketer added that had Gill shown the intent early on, the match would not have gone till the final over.
“He (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 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 off 7 in the last over,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“You can’t think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. When you think about your performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can’t think like that. If he 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,” Sehwag added.
After Gill’s dismissal, Rahul Tewatia came out to bat, with Gujarat Titans still needing six runs from the last four balls against Punjab Kings. Tewatia hit a boundary off the penultimate delivery to win the match for his side.
After the match, Gill said that it was difficult to hit boundaries towards the end of the match and expressed his disappointment for not finishing the match.
“The wicket got tougher towards the end. It was difficult to score boundaries at will. It was important for us to run hard and get those boundaries. I feel I should have finished the match but I feel Rahul Tewatia and Kings XI is a love story. In these types of games, there is pressure on both teams. But it’s important to keep getting those singles and not have dot balls,” Gill said.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
