To pursue greatness, Gill must master T20s

Only a handful of cricketers have consistently done well in all 3 formats, and that will be the challenge for India's Test captain

- SANDIP G

A QUIET EXCITEMENT bubbles in the arena, the leafy practice ground of the ICC Academy, when Shubman Gill strides past the picket fence and walks out to bat with his brisk long strides, rehearsing forward defensive shots. The net bowlers turn their heads back to watch him, a queue forms beside the netted enclosure where he is walking towards. Everyone wants to bowl all at once to the new prince of Indian batting. The support staff, the sparse onlookers and security guards too divert their gaze to the lean, angular silhouette of Gill.

Gill quietly takes his guard, his mind solely absorbed on his leitmotif of the nets session. Which, as it turned out to be, was tuning into the T20 groove. He has not, before the UAE game, featured in one for his country in more than a year. It's also the format he has yet to impose his greatness on, although he is certainly destined to decipher its peculiar pulses, as he had the two other formats.