IPL 2019: Dinesh Karthik lauds Shubman Gill, says he can stay calm under pressure

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got a jolt in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019, after losing their last match to Delhi Capitals (DC) in their own den of Eden Gardens. The only silver lining for the Dinesh Karthik-led team was the sublime innings of Shubman Gill. The 19-year-old scored his highest IPL score of 65 off 39 balls and helped the Knight Riders reach 178/7.

However, Shikhar Dhawan’s 97* was the cornerstone of the Delhi Capitals’ chase as they lost just 3 wickets in their victory. Rishabh Pant scored 46 runs, while for KKR, Andre Russell also scored 45 runs in the match as well. KKR had to make forced changes in the match when both Chris Lynn fell victim to flu and Sunil Narine had a hamstring issue, and Joe Denly made his IPL debut but was out on the first ball of the match.

Dinesh Karthik says Gill has the temperament to play under pressure    

Shubman Gill had made his KKR debut in IPL 2018 on the back of his performance in the ICC U19 World Cup and starred in the limited opportunities he got, scoring a fifty. However, almost all of his innings for KKR in IPL 2018 and IPL 2019 came at no.6 or 7. This time, however, he got to open the innings, which is his natural batting position and he showed his calibre.

“Today Shubman used the opportunity and did really well. It shows his class as player. He’s able to stay calm under pressure situations, which is a very unique skill to have. He has delivered for us over and over again. He realizes that whenever there’s an opportunity he will be sent up the order, if not, he’s pretty okay batting at No 7 and finishing off games whenever he gets the opportunity. I think we’ve been very straightforward with him and he appreciates that,” Karthik was quoted as saying by India Today.

KKR have lost all three games batting first and Karthik spoke on the matter, saying, it’s been a tournament where obviously chasing has been more preferable. Even last couple of years the trend has been that teams have been chasing down a big total. So, it’s interesting the game is going down in that direction. It goes a lot to show how true the wickets are.

“We knew that we needed to get a big total but we ended up getting probably 10-15 runs short. Eden has been one place where the wicket is so true and the outfield being so fast, the boundaries come easily. So here you have to get a score which is about 5-10 runs more than par on other grounds,” Karthik further said.

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