Playing under great leaders will help me a lot in this IPL: Gill on GT captaincy

AHMEDABAD: India opener Shubman Gill feels the experience of playing under “great leaders” in the India setup will help him a lot when he leads Gujarat Titans in the upcoming season of the IPL.

Gill has played under the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and played a vital role in India reaching the World Cup final at home recently.

Gill was recently announced skipper of 2022 IPL champions Gujarat Titans after their captain for two seasons, Hardik Pandya, was traded back to five-time winners Mumbai Indians.

It will be Gill’s maiden outing as captain of an IPL side, having begun his journey in the competition in 2018 with Kolkata Knight Riders before heading to GT in 2022.

“We all know captainship comes with a lot of things, and commitment is one of them. Discipline is one of them. Hard work is one of them. Loyalty is one of them,” said Gill in a video posted by the franchise on social media.

“And, because, I think I’ve played under great leaders and I’ve learned a lot from them, I think those learnings that I have had from their experience playing under them is gonna help me a lot in this IPL.” Gill added that there was no dearth of experienced players in Gujarat Titans, and he would get to learn a lot from leaders such as New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan.

“We have great leaders in our team, be it Kane (Williamson) or be it Rashid (Khan) or be it (Mohammed) Shami, or even David (Miller), or even Wriddhi (Saha). So, I think it’s gonna be great.

“And obviously, there are gonna be a lot of learnings along the way, which would be my experience as a captain. And I see a lot of people making great memories,” he added.

As far as playing the leadership role is concerned, Gill was the India U-19 vice-captain during the 2018 World Cup. He was also named skipper of India Blue during the 2019-20 Duleep Trophy, the India C captain in the Deodhar Trophy the same season, and the India-A leader during the New Zealand tour later in 2019.

However, Gill feels it will take him some time for the feeling of being made GT skipper to sink in.

“I think it’s gonna take, like, probably till the time we don’t play the first match. It’s not gonna quite sink in. It’s a great feeling.

“I was about seven or eight years old when IPL started happening. Obviously, it’s a dream for any kid who wants to be a cricketer and wants to play the IPL to be able to captain a team. Then, to be able to be that kind of binding factor in this team, it feels amazing,” he concluded.