Shubman Gill Can Lead Gujarat Titans In Indian Premier League In Future: Vikram Solanki

Mumbai: Young India opener Shubman Gill has ‘smart cricketing brain’ and can emerge as leader of the Gujarat Titans in the future due to his conduct and work ethics, said the IPL team’s director of cricket Vikram Solanki on Thursday.

Gill has become an integral part of the Indian side over the last six months or so given his all-round performances which includes a double century against New Zealand in ODIs. He also had a successful outing with the Gujarat Titans in their title-winning campaign last year.

While Pandya is set to continue as GT skipper in their second IPL season, Gill is also being seen as a leader within the core group. “Shubman is a leader in his own right for the simple fact that he takes on a lot of responsibility. In my mind, it is not important that you play with an asterisk next to a player’s name,” Solanki told reporters during a virtual media session on Thursday.

“Shubman adapted the leadership role last year, by his conduct, by the way he goes about, with his professional attitude towards the game.” The right-handed batter finished just four runs behind Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya in the list of highest run-getters, smacking 432 runs in 16 matches at 132.32 with four fifties.

“Do I think that Shubman will be a leader in the future? Yes absolutely, but no decision has been made about that as yet. He has leadership qualities and is very mature who has an abundant amount of talent,” Solanki said.

“He has a very smart cricketing brain and we will continue to have conversations with Shubman and invite his opinion on every decision we make.” GT will open their campaign against four-time title winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 31.

Solanki said there are no injury concerns in the Gujarat Titans squad with star batter David Miller being the last player to join the squad. Miller will miss the opening game against Chennai Super Kings due to national commitments.

With India hosting the ODI World Cup in October-November, workload management of the key national players will be important. Mohammad Shami is one such player, who is coming into the IPL after playing three Tests and as many ODIs against Australia and Solanki said that the franchise will monitor the India pacer.

“He was quite outstanding for us last year. You just have to wait and see what the situation is, we have to be respectful of the fact that fast bowling is a very demanding job,” Solanki said.

“He is coming off a lot of cricket, we got to make sure we do the best for Mohammad Shami so that he can, in turn, do the best for Gujarat Titans. He will be one of those players we will monitor carefully with every preparation, every resource so that he is in best possible place for every game.”