Shubman Gill is not much of a talker. His replies can be irksomely short for interviewers. The commentators have to almost goad him to talk longer in the mid-innings or post-match conversations. When The Hindu meets him over a video call, he is seated like a shy schoolboy, reluctant to speak. He greets us with a silent half-smile. Just an evening ago, the Gujarat Titans batter was screaming mid-air, after smashing a 49-ball 100 – his third of the ongoing Indian Premier League Season – against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2. The innings, which culminated at 129 off 60 balls, has pedestalled him as the heir apparent to Virat Kohli in the men’s Indian team batting line-up.
Shubman downplays the adulations. “People will always have something to say about you – good or bad. But I don’t let that affect me,” he says, stoically.
Despite the modesty, he acknowledges the near-invincibility he felt playing that knock against MI in Ahmedabad, which took his team into the final. “It felt like I could not do any mistakes. I was completely in the zone. I felt like a superhero.”
