Former batter Srikkanth lauded Shubman Gill for his heroic knock in the opening ODI of the England tour of India 2025.
The 65-year-old who criticised Gill and questioned his place in the playing 11 in the past, has praised the vice-captain for an impressive knock in Nagpur.
Talking on his YouTube Channel, Srikkanth praised Gill terming his knock as ‘intelligent’ and ‘mature’. Hea also congratulated the Indian ODI vice-captain for winning the Player of the Match award.
“He played a brilliant knock. Today I surrender to you completely. Shubman Gill played a very mature knock. More than mature, it was an intelligent knock. Shreyas Iyer had done all the work and had handed over the innings to Gill.”
“He didn’t have to do much. He took his own time and did not go for big shots, especially against Adil Rashid. He played his normal game. Congrats Gill for getting the Player of the Match (POTM) award,” Srikkanth said.
The former Indian batter had earlier slammed Gill’s inclusion in the ODI tam due to his poor returns in his last few innings in the format.
Batting First England started well with Phil Salt and Ben Duckett putting a 75-run stand. But after the dismissal of the top order Jos Buttler came to the rescue smashing a fifty in the middle order before being dismissed by Axar Patel.
Jacob Bethell also put up a half-century helping the side to cross 200+ runs. But with the dismissal of these batters, England Eventually crumbled to lose all wickets for scoring 248 runs.
Harshit Rana and Jadeja picked three wickets each while Shami, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav picked one wickets each.
With the target of 249, Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma opened the innings where they failed to give a jump start. However, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer joined hand to forge 94 runs partnership for the third wicket. Iyer smashed 59 runs before being dismissed on lbw by Jacob Bethell.
Axar Patel who came to bat after Iyer, smashed a fifty and contributed the side to cross 200+ runs.
Shubmn Gill smashed 87 and missed his century as he was dismissed by Saqib Mahmood. With Jadeja and Pandya contributing remaining runs India secured a four wicket win with 74 balls to spare.
Leading the series 1-0, India will be aiming for a win in the second ODI on February 09 at Barabati Stadium.
