Virender Sehwag slams Shubman Gill for his innings against PBKS

Shubman Gill scored 67 off 49 deliveries against Punjab Kings while chasing 154.

Former Indian opening batter Virender Sehwag has come down hard on Shubman Gill for prioritizing his innings over the team's win during the match against Punjab Kings on Thursday in Mohali. Sehwag warned the youngster that being selfish can backfire big time in the near future.

Although Gill top-scored with 67 for the Gujarat Titans in their six-wicket win, he slowed down towards the end. He lost his wicket in the final over of the game, leaving the defending champions to get six off four deliveries. Rahul Tewatia held his nerve to seal the win with a boundary over fine leg to chase down 154 successfully.

Speaking to Cricbuzz after the game, the 44-year-old opined that Gill questioned the lack of intent from Gill when he was close to a half-century as the team would've had more deliveries to face.

"You can’t think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. The moment you think about your own performance, you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can’t think like that. If he had showed 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 save more deliveries for his team."

"Shubman reached his fifty off maybe 41-42 balls" - Virender Sehwag

Sehwag further pointed out that had the young right-handed batter not accelerated even a bit a while before, the Titans might have had to chase more than ten runs.

"He 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 has scored 17 more runs. The acceleration came there, after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have been chasing maybe 17 instead of 7 in the last over. Gill did in fact did toil to his half-century. After being on 35 off 22, Gill took 18 deliveries to score the next 15 and reach his fifty, which was less than a run-a-ball."

Hardik Pandya did a commendable job as his captaincy restricted the Kings to 153. Mohit Sharma earned the Player of the Match award for his figures of 4-0-18-2.