Shane Watson Backs Shubman Gill: Why Talent Will Overcome Format Challenges

Before boarding the plane for the white-ball tour of Australia, Gill captained India for two home Tests against the West Indies last month. He began the series with a composed 50(100) on Ahmedabad's green top and fired his way to an unbeaten 129(196) on Delhi's benign surface.

With barely more than a week to switch his mindset to ODIs on Australia's seaming conditions, Gill looked composed with his technique, but toiled for runs across the three-match series. After being promoted from number four to the opening slot, Gill walked out of the 50-over leg with a tally of 43 at 14.33 and a best score of 24(26) as India ended on the losing side with a 2-1 defeat.

"It definitely is a challenge, and the more you do it, the better you get at really understanding the little adjustments that you have to make to your technique, to your game plan, your mindset around each format to be able to then get into the best version of you every time you have to make that adjustment," Watson said while speaking to reporters.

After a forgettable run in his maiden ODI captaincy assignment, Gill once again faced a similar challenge. He had a couple of days to tweak his approach from ODIs to T20Is. In the high-scoring demand of the T20 format, Gill's inconsistent patch elongated in the first three fixtures. With 57 runs and two games to play for, Watson put his weight behind the India vice-captain to conjure a solution and find the purple patch.

"It does take time, and it's through trial and error that you really realise exactly what you need to do to make those adjustments, and playing in different conditions as well. Shubman Gill is a ridiculously talented batter. He's got an amazing technique," Watson said.

"It's not going to take him long at all to be able to really navigate his way through the different formats because when someone is as highly skilled as he is, it's not going to take him too long," Watson added.

With the series tied at 1-1, India and Australia will grapple for a valuable lead in the fourth game, scheduled to commence on Thursday at Carrara Oval, and Gill would be keen on leaving an impression by piling up runs on the board.

India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.

- ANI