India seemed to have found a great pairing at the top when Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson piled up runs in T20Is last year. However, now forcing Shubman Gill into the setup and making him the vice-captain has led to a new opening pair. While Abhishek Sharma remains a constant, Gill has been asked to perform his role as an opener. Although the move hasn’t done wonders as of yet, it still has its upsides.
Bond of Abhishek & Gill
Abhishek, who won the Player of the Series award after India’s 2-1 T20I series win over Australia, talked about those upsides and revealed the bond he shares with Gill. Hailing from Punjab, both Abhishek and Gill have grown up and played enough cricket together since the under-12 days. Both talents were part of India’s famous Under-19 World Cup-winning team (2018) and also took coaching from Yuvraj Singh.
Often described as a ‘fire & ice’ duo, Abhishek feels the bond is more of ‘fire & fire’ and talked about how they help each other on the field, with their chemistry being perhaps the best in the entire team. Abhishek, while speaking to reporters, said:
“I’d actually say we’re more like fire and fire. The way Shubman was batting today. We’ve been playing together since the Under 12 days, so there’s a deep understanding between us. I usually know what shot he’s about to play, and he understands which bowler I’m planning to target. Sometimes he helps me with shot selection, and I do the same for him — that chemistry is something we really enjoy on the field.“
Gill-Shake: T20 World Cup openers?
Although Gill looked great in the fifth T20I against Australia, hammering a 16-ball 29* before rain stopped play, he still needs to up his game. With the likes of Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal waiting in the wings, Gill has to take his T20 batting art forward and be more consistent. Ever since returning to the T20I side, Gill has scored just 259 without even a single fifty across 12 matches.
Although Abhishek remains the major X-factor with his tremendous ball striking and aggressive nature of play, his Punjab partner needs to justify his position. He still has 10 matches before the T20 World Cup 2026, which begins in February. Having said that, the duo of Abhishek and Gill have been successful together. As openers, they added 476 together at an average of 43.27 and a scoring run rate of 9.98 across 12 innings.
With India’s continuous backing of Gill, he will soon perform the role given to him and be more threatening in the format. The talent is obviously there and some hand-to-hand success might be there soon!
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