'He will not have a blank bat for long' - Cricketers salute Shubman Gill for his outstanding knock of 91 against Australia

When Shubman Gill played at the U19 World Cup in 2018, everyone knew that the Punjab batsman will surely go on to play for the national side. The right-handed batter had an average of above 100 in the tournament and was awarded that man of the tournament. It took a few years for Gill to showcase his class at the international level, but January 19, 2021, will be etched in history as the day when he truly arrived at the senior level.

Going into the final day’s play of the fourth Test between Australia and India, the visitors would have hoped for a long and valuable inning from the more experienced opener, Rohit Sharma. However, midway through the second session, it was his opening partner about whom the entire cricket fraternity was talking.

Gill misses maiden century, sets up the run chase for India

The 21-year-old played a wonderful inning of 91 which set up India’s run chase. The visitors were up against a huge and improbable total of 328 runs and the whole day of 98 overs to play out in order to settle for a draw. The team had a terrible start as Sharma got out in just the ninth over. It was then that Gill got together with Cheteshwar Pujara and started building a partnership. Over after over, as Pujara was trying to deflate the energy of the Australian pace attack, the young batter at the other end got in and started taking on the bowlers.

The opening batsman played attacking shots and kept trying to put the pressure on the Aussie bowlers. He smashed eight fours and two sixes and showed solid defence as the Indians started pushing towards the target. As he was getting closer to his hundred, he stepped a foot on the accelerator. However, he edged one to the slips while going for a cover drive off the bowling of Nathan Lyon. Steve Smith took the catch as it denied Gill his maiden ton. The batsman ended with a score of 91 off 146 balls, with a strike rate of 62.33.

Several people from the cricket fraternity decided to congratulate the batsman for his superb knock which kept Indians in the game.

Here are some of the tweets from cricketers