New Delhi: If there is one person who caught all the attention during India’s victorious tour of Australia, it has to be opener Subhman Gill. It was his innings of 91 that set up India’s platform for a historic victory at Brisbane and India emerged 2-1 winners of the series. Shubman Gill revealed Sunday he used to be ‘petrified of bouncers’ before eventually overcoming all his fears to get his Test career off to a rollicking start against some of the world’s fastest bowlers.
In the six innings that he batted against the likes of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, the Indian youngster never looked in any sort of discomfort. But it wasn’t so easy many years ago.
“When you get hit by a ball, your fear disappears. You are only scared until you get a blow but once you get hit, you feel like it was pretty normal! And then you lose the fear entirely,” Gill was quoted as saying by his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on website www.Kkr.In.
“When I was young, I used to be petrified of bouncers. I used to be prepared for the chest-height balls way in advance. I used to practice drives a lot so I got mature in playing the pull shot with a straight bat. I also developed the cut shot by moving away from the line of the ball,” Gill added.
Gill said he learnt a lot from legends such as Rahul Dravid (U-19 World Cup and India A), Jacques Kallis and Brendon McCullum (at KKR). “When you have such legends in your dressing room, one can just only learn. Certainly what they have taught me has helped me in my career,” Gill pointed out.