The 2011 World Cup witnessed the passing of the baton from Sachin Tendulkar to Virat Kohli. Twelve years later, the stage is all set for Kohli to, rather poetically, pass it on to Shubman Gill, India’s crown prince, writes Aadya Sharma. This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
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As ever, India enter a World Cup unanimously branded ‘favourites’. Moreover it’s a home tournament, and the last three winners have all been hosts, dating back to India in 2011 and that magical outpouring in Mumbai, a generational and expectation-setting achievement.
Each year since, however, those expectations have taken a hit, knackered by the blow of every ICC event and every missed chance. The hope rages on inside, but you whisper your prayers. The heartbreak of 2019 and the image of a defeated MS Dhoni, trudging back in silence as his final act in the India kit, still rankles for many.
The only constant from 2011 and 2019 going into 2023 is Virat Kohli, a modern great, now an ex-captain just out of an exasperating long rough patch. Twelve years ago, the baton passed from an ageing Sachin Tendulkar to a young Kohli, vastly different in styles but proud owners of two all-time great ODI careers.
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This year could see Kohli passing on that baton himself. Shubman Gill is already hot property in ODIs. Indian cricket keeps throwing up new batting stars: some wither away, others stick on for longer. Gill, in an everchanging field of fresh pretenders and new talents, seems singularly equipped for the long run.
It’s not just the batting alone: Gill’s online persona adds to his portrayal as the charismatic crown prince. Soft-spoken but astonishingly photogenic, he’s a dedicated Instagrammer, sporting designer clothes like a seasoned model, a wide grin ready for anyone with a camera. His shirtless, abs-revealing snap – captioned “thirst trap” – in the middle of IPL 2023 was an instant hit. Gill knows how to entertain fans and take an image to market.
The real entertainment comes with a bat in hand. Gill is gorgeously gifted: tall and athletic, he smothers deliveries but never over-hits them, his stance upright but not stiff, the strokes commanding but never savage.
“He has point of a second extra to read the length early,” says Shivam Mavi, his long-time teammate across youth cricket, the IPL and now the senior team. “If you err a tiny bit from your area, he hits you for a boundary. And it’s not like he plays just one shot well: he plays well all around the ground, point, third man, cover drive, flick over mid-off. He’s got all the shots. You need to strategise a bit more for him.”
Mavi credits Gill’s brilliance to his preteen practice: his father Lakhwinder Singh Gill, a farmer who’d himself had aspirations to become a cricketer, would bowl over a thousand deliveries a day at him, often using the bounce of a rope-strung bedstead. Coming from a little town but built on strong foundations, Gill cruised through age-group levels, mostly ahead of time, and vice-captained an Under-19 World Cup winning unit. By then, he was already a first-class cricketer. Within months, he was wearing the full kit.
On Gill’s debut tour Kohli was blown away, observing, “I was not even 10 percent of that when I was 19”. Gill, calling it a sweet gesture, later told me: “It was really kind of him to say those words, but I don’t believe it to be true. I’ve learnt quite a lot watching him bat.” As with Sachin and Virat, the mutual admiration is not forced.
Months before touring Australia in 2020, Gill, mentored by Yuvraj Singh, worked on his skill against bounce. Against Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins, he looked as equipped as any Test debutant possibly could. Even now, as a regular in all three formats, the grind hasn’t stopped.
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Former cricketer Surendra Bhave, until recently Punjab state team coach, was in awe of Gill’s work ethic when he joined them for the 2022 Ranji Trophy. “He would just bat and bat in nets,” Bhave says. “He’s capable of having a four-hour session.”
His Test numbers have oscillated, but Gill is already a white-ball monster. Since 2021, he averages 69.76 in ODIs, ushering in 2023 with two tons and a double hundred across nine days. A blockbuster IPL season followed: he smashed more runs than anyone, pillaging three centuries.
“As all good players do, he gets a lot of time to play his shots,” observes Bhave. “He’s got an amazing pull shot on him, a short-arm jab sort of a thing. He plays the authentic pull as well, but he also has that shot that he plays off the front foot. That is his trademark shot. Beautiful bat swings. And, another common denominator in all good players: he makes it look so simple.”
Kohli and Rohit remain this side’s biggest crowd-pullers, but they won’t be around forever, leaving Gill, and a handful of chosen others – Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant – with a future to design. It starts with this World Cup, an event that carries immense hope for fans, albeit with a tinge of hesitation. Indian fans don’t sleep well, but they still dream.
Kohli won the title at 23. If Gill does it too, the baton-passing will be rather poetic. Indian fans will find a new reason to dream on.
This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
