India’s Shubman Gill is the latest name to quote the infamous line about strike rate being overrated in Twenty20 cricket.
India’s rising star, Shubman Gill believes that the batsman’s biggest strength is his adaptability in different game situations with no fixed approach. Gill asserts that a batsman should change his game style according to the situation and not just focus on the strike rate all the time.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ batsman came under the pump last year during IPL 2020 for his slow strike rate. Shubman Gill couldn’t find a place in the playing XI in the limited overs leg against England. On being asked if he’s concerned about this aspect, Gill mentioned that the strike rate is overrated.
In an interview with PTI, ahead of the Indian Premier League, KKR’s opening batsman Shubman Gill said,
I think strike-rate is kind of overrated.
It’s all about how you adapt to a certain situation. If the team demands you to play with a strike rate of 200 you should be able to do it. If the team demands you to play at a strike rate of 100, you should be able to do it. It’s just about adapting to the match situation,
he added.
There shouldn’t be a certain pattern to your game where you are only able to play one kind of game and not being able to adapt to different situations,
Gill explained.
The 21-year old talented batsman received quite a stick for this statement on social media for obvious reasons. Shubman Gill has the third-lowest strike rate in the power-play since 2018. While he does have a logical explanation for the statement, it will be interesting to see if he can walk the talk.
Shubman Gill made a glorious start to his Test career on the tour of Australia. Gill made his debut in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne after India’s humiliating loss at Adelaide. Shubman made 259 runs in three matches, including his breathtaking counter-attacking knock of 91 in the historic 328 run chase at Gabba.
Since then, Gill went through a rough patch where he struggled in the home series against England. Gill could only manage to score 119 runs in four Test matches.
Gill hasn’t played any limited overs game since his last ODI outing against Australia last December, but he assured that the lack of game time wouldn’t affect him.
I don’t think it will affect anything because we have almost 10-12 days before our first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (April 11) so there’s plenty of time for me to prepare,
Gill said.
Can Shubman Gill up his T20 game?
In the 2020 edition of Indian Premier League, Shubman Gill amassed 440 runs in 14 matches. But his season strike rate of 117.86 was very ordinary. Add to that, his career power-play strike rate of 119 in IPL doesn’t leave a good mark. These numbers are well below par.
Gill has all the potential to do much better than he has done so far in his IPL career. Shubman has a good range against pace and spin alike. He is arguably one of the better batsmen of pure pace in the Kolkata Knight Riders’ unit. Previously, he has talked about England and KKR skipper Eoin Morgan’s approach positively influencing him. If the KKR batsman can up his intent, he has a good chance of perfecting the anchor’s role.
