Shubman Gill, the India top-order batsman, has recounted the time he came up against Hardik Pandya in his first season with the senior team in the Indian domestic circuit and the India all-rounder started sledging him.

Gill was just 17 at the time, playing for Punjab in only his third List A match, when he tried to play Pandya on the up. That suitably annoyed the India international. However, Gill counts that among the favourite sledges he’s had to cop.

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“It was my first year of the Ranji Trophy season and we were playing a one-day against Baroda,” he said in a video posted by Kolkata Knight Riders, his IPL franchise.

“And I remember Hardik bowling to me. He kept on sledging me and I don’t know for what reason.

“I tried to hit him on the up and the ball went straight to the fielder. Then he kept saying, ‘Ae chal na maar na! Chal na ye 19 nahi hai ye. Chal na maar na! (Come on hit me, this is not Under-19 cricket, hit me!)’.”

Pandya took three wickets in that match, but Gill, who only scored 6, wasn’t one of them. A year later, however, Gill would set the world alight, starring in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, before impressing at the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders. He would also make his India ODI debut in New Zealand in 2020.

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India Hardik PandyaShubman GillInternational Cricket