Shubman Gill concedes about his disappointment for missing out of West Indies series but vows to fight on

At 19, young Punjab batsman Shubman Gill has already found the hard way of learning. Despite having hit three consecutive half-centuries for India A in the ongoing trip of the West Indies, the talented right-hand batsman failed to make it to the Indian squad for the Caribbeans. Chief selector MSK Prasad announced three Indian squads for each of the formats to be played during the month-long series and said on Shubman’s missing out that he will have to wait for his turn.

Shubman burst into the scene with a Man of the Series award in the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand early last year. He was then picked up for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and did well for the Kolkata Knight Riders both in 2018 and 2019. Meantime, he also made his international debut in an ODI series in New Zealand early this year replacing KL Rahul but could not manage more than 16 runs.

It was expected that Shubman will become a regular member in India’s scheme of things particularly to restore energy in their brittle middle-order batting but somehow he will have to wait for more. Shubman, who averages near to 80 in domestic cricket, had an impressive ODI series for India A by slamming 218 runs in four games.

He featured in all the games that India A won while the only one that they lost did not feature Shubman. He has conceded that he indeed is disappointed for not having made it.

‘Will keep scoring runs’

“I was waiting for the Indian senior team to be announced on Sunday and I expected to be selected for at least one of the squads. It was disappointing not to get picked but I am not going to spend time thinking over it. I’ll keep scoring runs and performing to the best of my ability to impress the selectors,” Timesnownews.com quoted Shubman, who slammed 69 off 40 balls hours after not finding himself in the West Indies-bound squad, as saying.

“It was a fantastic series for me and team as well since we won with a 4-1 margin. Personally, I would have liked to carry on and score at least a couple of hundreds in those fifties. But I will learn from this experience.”

Shubman scored 1545 runs in last 38 matches for India A at an impressive average of 45.44. In the previous Ranji Trophy season, the youngster made a whopping 700 runs in the final 5 matches.

Former international coach Dav Whatmore said recently that Shubman could be a solution to India’s problems with the No.4 batting position. Even Prasad had spoken highly of him in the run-up to the World Cup saying he is a batsman who can adjust to all positions.