CHENNAI: WHEN Kolkata Knight Riders let go off Shubman Gill before the mega auction in 2022, even if his basic metrics didn’t make you jump (478 runs at 118 in 17 games in 2021), there were a few signs of what he could become. He had just turned 21 and had already taken on the likes of Mitchell Starc, albeit in a different format, at the Gabba.
Cut to 2023; Gill is striking at 152.4, 20 more than his strike rate in 2022. While the numbers indicate the clear upgraded version of him, there is more to it. Less than two years ago, Gill’s range was more limited. Sure, he was always dominant against pace, the strong back-foot game was always there, he could cut, pull and drive on the up, irrespective of pace or conditions. But what has changed is his range against spin.
He showed glimpses of it in 2022, but in 2023, Gill has unleashed a beast that no bowler has been able to stop. That there is no difference in his strike rate against pace and spin says everything. The slog sweep, down on knee launches over the bowler’s head, punches and lofts through cover... he has shown it all.
Through this transformation one thing that has remained constant. The sound off the bat when Gill meets the ball. It was the same on Sunday night in Bengaluru when Gill toyed with RCB bowling attack on the way to his second century of the season as it was in Brisbane when Gill tonked Starc over point for the six.
There is a sense of royalty to it that makes you go ‘wow’ almost every time he middles a ball. If you think it is an exaggeration of sorts, all you have to do is listen to former West Indian great Ian Bishop commentate when he is batting or even search Gill with his username on Twitter. The results would put a smile on your face.
There is a rhythm to it as well. You could feel the cleanliness of the sound from the shots he is playing or how much he is extending his arms into the batswing. From back-foot defence to the cuts to the cover drives to the short-arm jabs to the slog sweep with his extended batswing, if you listen to his batting on loop, it feels like music. It reminds you of the freshness when you listened to the songs of AR Rahman in stereo headphones for the first time in the 90s. It would not be an understatement to say that Gill himself is a maestro in the making.
In simpler terms, numbers apart, if one has to find out whether an Indian batter has well and truly arrived in the popular culture, all you have to do is go to YouTube and see if you can find the compilation of their shots/innings edited to a mass movie song/music in the background, with the sound of the bat from each shot fitting perfectly to the beats. You could find truckloads of such videos for MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma with the narrative of the song fitting to the arc of their careers. If you search for Gill today, the videos have started arriving already.
When Kohli hit his sixth IPL century less than a week ago in Hyderabad, another round of arguments about whether he is one of the last in the all-format batters tribe started. In the few days since, Gill has provided a timely reminder that he is there with back-to-back hundreds, the second of which eclipsed Kohli’s seventh IPL ton, eliminating RCB. Royal terms like “king” and “prince” are often used to describe Kohli. The heir apparent — Gill — is showing why he is ideally suited to take over. He is making it a habit to bow down and tip his helmet after his centuries. It will not be too long before the rest of the cricketing world bows down before him with the sound of his bat reverberating across the stadiums across the world.