Former India Skipper Warns Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill Against Complacency After ODI Double Tons
New Delhi: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has warned youngsters Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill not to get carried away after their ODI double tons in recent times. While Kishan scored 210 against Bangladesh last month, Gill hammered 208 against the Lankans earlier this month.
“In the last one month or so, there have been two double centuries cracked by Indian batsmen in one-day internationals. Both were magnificent innings by young men brimming with confidence and with a huge future ahead of them,” Gavaskar wrote for Mid-Day.
“They are in their early 20s, so what they make of the future is entirely up to them. Will they keep their head and feet on the ground after these stupendous knocks or are they going to get carried away so much that they think that all that they have to do is to just turn up at the crease and the runs will flow by automatically,” added the Indian skipper.
Openers by trait both Gill and Kishan have been fighting for the spot alongside Rohit Sharma to open the batting for India. However, the Indian captain has backed Gill over Kishan, that led the latter to sit out against Sri Lanka in three ODIs depite hitting a double ton in his last game.
In the past, India have seen several cricketers who got lost despite a sparkling start such as Karun Nair, Laxmipathy Balaji, etc. The batting legend also hoped that performances in IPL do not erase memories of failures at the international level for Gill and Kishan.
“Today’s youngsters are super confident, and that’s a wonderful thing. The worry of being dropped from the national team doesn’t enter their minds as they have the cushion of an IPL contract. Therefore, failure doesn’t scare them and they can go out and play what is popularly known as fearless cricket when it is actually worry-free cricket.
“When being dropped from the national team is not a worry then a player can go out and play bindaas cricket for there’s always the IPL with its minimum 14 matches in which to make people forget the international failures,” added Gavaskar.