Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
As yours truly tried to complete a quotes copy in the corner of the ICC Academy, there was a commotion of sorts at the ground. Shubman Gill, the India vice-captain, had taken a blow on his hand. The eyes were suddenly fixed on Gill as the physio came rushing out. He soon went off the field and sat on the ice box with a rather worried look on his face. Gautam Gambhir, Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Sharma all had a word or two with him.
However, the concern didn’t last for long as Gill was back facing throwdowns in one of the main nets. He kept thwacking almost everything that came his way. One of those lofts was smashed owide of long-off. And another via extra cover. Generally, pristine timing is the hallmark of Gill’s shots. But after that injury, it almost felt like he was hitting everything with anger, and some of them were basically no-look shots. By then, most of the batters had trudged off the field. Not so Gill. He still was chasing excellence, perfecting the loft and the flick.
From an Indian perspective, Gill’s work ethic would hopefully help him to negate the threat of Shaheen Afridi. During the 2021 T20 World Cup, and for a brief while in the 2023 Asia Cup, the tall left-arm pacer seemed to have a mental edge over India. But in one of the later games of that Asia Cup, in Colombo, Gill tore apart Shaheen with a volley of boundaries.
The keynote of his batting was his intent to come forward at every given opportunity. The way he shuffled across a touch, took a stride out, extended his arms, and finished with a high left elbow in order to crack a sumptuous loft off Shaheen said that he was just playing the white Kookaburra ball and not the bowler in front of him. Perhaps Gill can take first strike against Shaheen in the upcoming 2025 Asia Cup game against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh, Gill’s Punjab teammate, was involved in certain exercises. A couple of days ago, he was also seen in the nets, mainly looking to bowl a fuller length. Earlier in the year, it was quite evident that Arshdeep was struggling to find his inswinger during the Champions Trophy. Even when he was out of the side, it could be observed that he kept searching for the inswinger on the sidelines.
Returning to the present day, it was difficult to gauge whether Arshdeep was attempting the inswinger in the nets as he quietly went about his job. The left-arm pace bowler is the highest wicket-taker for India in T20Is but couldn’t secure a berth in the playing XI for the UAE game. India’s strategy of picking a spin-heavy attack went against Arshdeep.
The left-armer, however, has a couple of game-breaking spells against Pakistan to his name. Who can forget his three-for while playing Pakistan at the MCG in 2022? The track in Dubai also offered a hint of nip for the pacers in the India-UAE game. It would just be difficult for the think-tank to drop either of Varun Chakaravarthy or Kuldeep Yadav. And Axar Patel’s all-round skill balances the side. Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coach of the Indian set-up, also said in the press conference that changes to the side are ‘unlikely’.
Can Gill negate Shaheen’s offerings? What about the match-up between Abhishek Sharma and Shaheen? And if he navigates through that spell, there is the mouth-watering prospect of Abhishek going up against Sufiyan Muqeem and Abrar Ahmed. On the bowling side of things, it could be Varun’s day of redemption after he virtually became a scapegoat for India’s loss in the 2021 World Cup against Pakistan.
The larger picture to emerge is the call from many fans to boycott the game. Will there be a full house, and a cacophony of sounds associated with every India-Pakistan game? Only time will tell.
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