The Indian Premier League’s 16th season is scheduled to commence on March 31st with a match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad. After the India-Australia bilateral series, the focus has now shifted to the upcoming IPL, with most players expected to join their respective teams soon. While some players, such as CSK captain MS Dhoni, have been practicing since the beginning of this month, others will join their team camps shortly. Shubman Gill, Gujarat’s ace batter, is expected to join the GT camp soon.
Gill has had a tremendous year so far and has recently been praised by the top brass of Gujarat’s management for his composure. According to GT’s Director of Cricket, Vikram Solanki, Shubman Gill has the potential to become the next captain of the franchise, succeeding Hardik Pandya in the future. Solanki also mentioned that Gill has demonstrated leadership skills during the 2022 edition and is capable of being a leader in his own right.
Gujarat Titans’ director on Shubman Gill
“Shubman is a leader in his own right for the simple fact that he takes on a lot of responsibility. In my mind, it is not important that you play with an asterisk next to a player’s name. Shubman adapted the leadership role last year, by his conduct, by the way, he goes about, with his professional attitude towards the game,” Solanki said.
“Do I think that Shubman will be a leader in the future? Yes absolutely, but no decision has been made about that as yet. He has leadership qualities and is very mature who has an abundant amount of talent,” he added.
In their debut season in the IPL, Gujarat Titans emerged victorious by defeating Rajasthan Royals in the final, led by Hardik Pandya. Shubman Gill was a standout player for the Titans, having scored 483 runs in 16 matches during the IPL 2022 season. The 23-year-old batter hit four half-centuries and finished as the tournament’s fifth-highest run-scorer, with only Hardik Pandya having scored more runs for Gujarat Titans.
After a remarkable performance for Gujarat Titans in the 2022 IPL season, Shubman Gill was selected to play for India in all formats and impressed everyone with his excellent performances. He opened the batting for India in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy and scored a century in the final Test of the series in Ahmedabad in March.
This year, Gill has been in tremendous form, having scored his first ODI double-century against New Zealand, making him the youngest player to achieve this feat. In doing so, he also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 186* to register the highest-ever ODI score against New Zealand.
