Watching cricket during the Doordarshan days had its own charm and nostalgia. Sunil Gavaskar’s surreal technique became live and real in that disturbing black-and-white Beltek or Telerama. But what used to fascinate us was how fans evaded a posse of uniformed cops and sneaked up to the centre of the pitch to garland Gavaskar or maybe just hug him or touch him.
It’s more than three-and-a-half decades since Gavaskar retired, but India remains a “Cricketer Loving Nation”. You can beef up the security at any stadium as much as you can but the “fan on the street”, encouraged by Paulo Coelho’s iconic “universe conspires” line, made famous by Shah Rukh Khan, finds his way to get his “touch” of reality. Yes, it follows that some embarrassed security personnel would finally catch hold of the offender after a cat-and-mouse chase sequence. And then when there aren’t any cell phones zooming in on the offender, he will get a nice “touch up”, some customised slaps and punches, for his three minutes of infamy.
It was October 27, 2018, and the Deodhar Trophy final was being played between India B and India C at the Feroz Shah Kotla (now Arun Jaitley Stadium). For the uninitiated, the Deodhar Trophy has been India’s zonal one-day tournament for years, but of late has lost relevance and context. But that year, it was being played in the Challenger Trophy format. Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer were undoubtedly two of the biggest attractions during that final, and scored big hundreds. Frankly, we remember little about the match, but an incident that happened after the match has stayed with us since.
After the prize distribution ceremony, the players were all chatting in a group near the Old pavilion of the Kotla, when an overenthusiastic fan jumped the fence. And with a body feint that would have put any top European football league player to shame, he evaded a couple of security men while sprinting towards the players. But as luck would have it, one of the security men overpowered him and was about to slap him when a teenager asked the guard to let him go free.
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The man rushed towards the boy and, before anyone could gauge what was happening, touched his feet. Normally, I have seen players get red-faced and very embarrassed when someone touches their feet, and they stop them midway. But this 19-year-old called Shubman Gill allowed him to touch his feet, enjoyed that adulation, and gave him a friendly pat on the back like a superstar would, while reminding the security not to treat him harshly. He was indeed different.
Mind you, Gill hadn’t made his India debut then but there was one fan, who was desperate to get near him and touch his feet. He was not even a trifle embarrassed. Most of the cricketers standing around were amused, but secretly they must have been proud of the manner in which a rookie handled a situation which could have gone out of hand due to a potential security breach. We all knew Gill had the game, but his presence of mind showed that he had the temperament. The killer chocolate-boy looks were just the icing on the cake.
Gill’s story is one of perseverance, hard work, unbelievable talent and also the sacrifices of a family that moved out of its comfort zone to build a career for their beloved child. Lakhwinder Singh, his father, is a farmer, and so is his grandfather. They hail from Fazilka, a small village on the India-Pakistan border.
So what makes Gill special? First, the hallmark of a graceful player is an upright stance. The second is that extra split-second to play fast bowling with a stable base and solid back-foot play. The third certainly are his supremely powerful yet wonderfully supple wrists that help him to play square of the wicket on both sides. Last, but not least, is the way he relishes playing the horizontal bat shots—he can use the suppleness of wrists to keep the ball down when he feels like it, and he has the power to send it to the stands when he spots a short-of-length delivery a touch earlier than many others.
But again, Gill plays the cover drive against spinners with minimal back-lift, something that Virat Kohli has turned into an absolute art. And it was only fitting that Shubman upstaged Virat in what can be looked upon as the passing of the baton for India in this format.
In Gill’s first few years at the junior level, the best thing that could have happened to him was being under Rahul Dravid’s tutelage. Cricket, more than soccer or hockey, is a life sport and there couldn’t be a better life coach than “The Wall” himself, for giving some sound advice about how to deal with deliveries pitched in the “corridor of uncertainty” on the 22 yards and in the broader world.
Dravid is the perfect man to teach talented youngsters how to keep their feet grounded while enjoying the insane stardom. No one better than the most adorable “gunda” to have emerged from Indiranagar in recent times. That’s why Gill is a perfect example of a prodigious talent rising through the ranks and not being fast-tracked too early, the recipe of his success amidst the glitz and hullaballoo of the Indian Premier League.
So can he go on and repeat this success at The Oval in the WTC final? Can he yet again make the stage his own like he did against Mitch Starc in Brisbane in January 2021? It could well be the decisive battle that decides the World Test Championship.
Acknowledgement- I have drawn on the research done for our book, Mission Domination (with Kushan Sarkar), published in 2021 for this piece on Shubman Gill.