Shubman Gill highlights lack of opportunity against Pakistan cause of top-order failure

Shubman Gill scored just 10 runs against Pakistan in India's Asia Cup 2023 opener.

Indian opener Shubman Gill struggled against Pakistan's pace attack in Kandy. Gill was looking under pressure against the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Naseem Shah in the opening spell. Gill was struggling to settle his foot movement in his 32-ball innings. He was castled by Haris Rauf on 10 runs. The Indian top-order could not stay for long as they lost four wickets in 66-runs score. Ishan Kishan (82) and Hardik Pandya (87) took control in the Indian innings and added 138 runs for the 5th wicket to help India reach 266 runs. Gill has now said that the lack of opportunity to play against Pakistan proved crucial.

Gill highlights the cause of concern

Indian opener did have a great time against Nepal in a low-scoring chase, but he looked to be struggling against quality pace bowling. Gill said in a pre-match press conference, "When you are playing at this level, you have played left-arm pacers previously at some point in your career. We do not play Pakistan that much as compared to the other sides. They have a quality bowling attack. When you do not face such a bowling attack frequently and are not used to it, it makes a lot of difference." Team India played an ODI against Pakistan after 4 years, they took on each other only 4 times in the last 4 years after the 2019 World Cup.

Shubman Gill is opening the innings along with Rohit Sharma. The duo has been going great so far as an opener for team India in all three formats. Talking about the difference in playing style between him and captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill said, "I am someone who likes to play along the ground in the powerplay. Rohit takes on bowlers aerially. This combination works well for us. How different we are as players makes it difficult for bowlers to contain us." Gill has been India’s leading run-scorer in the one-day internationals this year. Gill has scored 827 runs in 14 innings, including three centuries in 2023.

Team India will be rectifying their mistakes made against Pakistan in the previous encounter. Bowlers need some game time before they go into the World Cup and play against Australia in a three-match ODI series against India. Batters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will bounce back with the kind of cricket they have played in their careers. Shubman Gill will also be looking to get a few big innings before the World Cup begins in India. India have only 6-7 international matches before they play their first World Cup 2023 warm-up game against the Netherlands on September 30th.