Dubai:
India vice-captain Shubman Gill on Saturday said the lack of dew in Dubai has made chasing a trickier proposition and his team would prefer putting runs on the board in the high-stakes game against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy in Dubai. Though India have dominated Pakistan in world events and also in the recent past, the match generates plenty of hype. Gill is well aware of the build-up created by fans on either side of the border but it doesn’t change anything for him and his team.
“It’s not for me to say whether India-Pakistan contest is under-hyped or over-hyped. There is a long history of India-Pakistan cricket. It is a very exciting contest but it doesn’t change anything for us.
“It is an important but the most important match will be the final,” Gill told reporters on the eve of the game.
Dew played a big role when the T20 World Cup was held in the UAE and Gill said it impacts the game even more in the ODI format. However, the lack of dew here has made batting tougher under lights on what is a challenging surface anyway.
“In the last match, dew was not there. When dew is not there, it is not that easy to bat (under lights) and it is not that easy to rotate strike as well. Whoever does well in middle overs has a better chance of winning. With lack of dew, toss also doesn’t play a big role.
“But, for any team – in any big match, if we don’t get dew then the team that is batting later will have more pressure,” said the stylish opener.
Given the conditions, Gill reckons anything in excess of 300 will be a very good score here.
“Definitely we want to play aggressive and positive cricket but that also depends on the surface. Score would be different on every wicket that we play. So 300 on this wicket or 280 would be a very good score for us.
“But if the wicket plays any differently, we might get 350 or 360. So, we don’t have any particular target set in our mind,” said Gill who made a match-winning unbeaten 101 against Bangladesh in India’s opening game.
We score boundaries with different shots
Gill looks for boundaries along the ground while his captain Rohit Sharma plays the high-risk game in the powerplay, making them click as an opening pair. Their contrasting approach worked for India against Bangladesh as they chased 229 on a slow wicket.
“Rohit bhai likes to play more aerial shots and try to make those sixes. I like to play around the ground and use those gaps. If I see the bowlers under pressure, then I take my chances to go over the circle.
“That’s the hallmark of us as a pair. We score boundaries with different shots and the bowlers really have to think which areas to target first because the areas that we play, the shots are different,” said Gill.
The 25-year-old averages more than 60 in the ODI format and the knock against Bangladesh was his eighth hundred in 51 games. Gill called the effort one of my most satisfying knocks.
“It was a tough match. There was pressure. If you don’t do well for even one or two matches, there is a lot of pressure (given the format). In that phase it was very important that we lose as few wickets as possible.
“Even if we had lost one more wicket, we would have played differently.”
Vice-captaincy hasn’t changed batting approach
Gill continues to pile on the runs in the 50-over format and was recently elevated to vice-captaincy. However, the added responsibility has not changed anything for him as a batter.
“I don’t think vice captaincy has changed anything. When I’m batting out there, I want to still play as a batsman because I feel that’s when – or that’s what brings the best out of me.
“So, whenever I’m batting out there, I’m just playing however I would play, irrespective of if I’m the vice-captain or not,” he added.
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