How Shubman Gill followed Rahul Dravid's World Cup over IPL advice to tame Pakistan

Christchurch: 63, DNB, 90*, 86, 102*. At times, these are decent runs even in a computer cricket game. Shubman Gill is scoring all those runs on the cricket field, in a serious tournament like ICC Under-19 World Cup, a tournament which has given India some of its brightest stars, World Cup winners with the senior teams and national-team captain – a point of reference Virat Kohli.

Gill, who fetched a good money alongside his U-19 skipper Prithvi Shaw and fellow teammates Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and Anukul Roy during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 Player Auction, clearly lived by his coach and one of India’s finest cricketers, Rahul Dravid’s, advice of focusing on World Cup instead of sweating over IPL riches by scoring a match-wining hundred (102*) in India’s 203-run win against Pakistan in the ICC U-19 World Cup semifinal at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Tuesday.

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Gill, who has been tipped to play for India, also became tournament’s second highest run-getter and India’s leading run-getter (341 runs) with his latest exploits. While there were some tensed moments during his unbeaten ton, but Gill managed to control his innings and eventually decided the outcome of the match with an innings he will “rank pretty high”.

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"I think this innings I'll rank pretty high. It was a pressure innings - all that nerves as it was against Pakistan," said Gill, after winning the Man of the Match award for his batting performance.

“The pitch wasn't that good to bat on against the spinners. I thought 250-260 would be a good-enough total for the pacers to defend,” added Gill while giving his thoughts on what could have been a decent total to put on board.

While he said he is looking forward to the Australian challenge in the finals, he seems to have chalked out his long-term goals, with a desire to play across formats.

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“Nowadays cricket is all about adaptability. I'd like to play all three formats. (I am) Looking forward to playing Australia in the final," concluded Gill.