Sunil Gavaskar Names Shubman Gill as ‘Smoothman Gill’ After India Beat New Zealand By 8 Wickets in 2nd ODI
Raipur: India clinched yet another ODI series on home soil as the Men in Blue defeated New Zealand by 8 wickets on Saturday at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.
Mohammed Shami was the Man of the Match for picking up 3 wickets for 18 runs and played a big role in bowling out the visitors for 108. At the post-match presentation Sunil Gavaskar in an interaction with opener Shubman Gill, named him ‘Smoothman Gill’, for the kind of smooth batting he does at the top of the order.
“I have given you a new nickname, Smoothman Gill. I hope you don’t mind”, Sunil Gavaskar told to Gill.
An all smiling Gill, who was a little embarrassed on hearing his new name replied, “I don’t mind at all, sir.”
Shubman Gill, who remained unbeaten on 40, was pleased over carrying his bat throughout the successful chase for India.
“This was a good opportunity for me to spend some time in the middle, and happy that I have come back not out. We were expecting there would be more for their fast bowlers, but after the five bowlers it was good to bat on. It did grip a little for Santner and Bracewell”, Gill told.
”It’s always a dream to bat with Rohit bhai, have learnt a lot batting along with him. Me and Ishan Kishan) are best mates, we spend a lot of time off-field together, it was great to spend some time batting together”, he further added.
With an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, India will be aiming to make it 3-0 in the third and final ODI at Indore on Tuesday.