‘Ae chal na maar na!’ – When Hardik Pandya tried to ruffle Shubman Gill with constant sledging

Shubman Gill made his first-class debut for Punjab back in November 2017. It was a few months before India’s U19 campaign in the World Cup in New Zealand. He was a 17-year-old back then and he would go on to become the Player of the Tournament in the mega event. In the initial phase of his career, apart from the opposition bowling, he also had to stave off some sledging.

Going down the memory lane, the Fazilka-born said that Hardik Pandya once tried to get under his skin. As per the 20-year-old it took place in 2017 during Punjab’s match against Baroda in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. A young Gill couldn’t comprehend what made Pandya sledge him. Gill put forth the revelations during a video, uploaded on Kolkata Knight Rider’s (KKR) Instagram handle.

I tried to hit him on the up: Shubman Gill

“It was my first year of the Ranji Trophy season and we were playing a one-day against Baroda. And I remember Hardik bowling to me. He kept on sledging me and I don’t know for what reason,” Gill was quoted as saying during the chat.

“I tried to hit him on the up and the ball went straight to the fielder. Then he kept saying, ‘Ae chal na maar na! Chal na ye U19 nahi hai ye. Chal na maar na’ (Come on hit me, this is not Under-19 cricket, hit me!),” he added.

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#ShubmanGill on #KKRFleets: . 🔹 Hilarious Sledging 😂 🔹 Favourite @iamsrk movie 😎 🔹 #CricketRecord he wants to break… and much more 🔥 Next up: We have @kuldeep_18 ! Rush to our link in bio to follow us on Twitter and send your questions for #TwitterFleets! 🐦 @shubmangill #HardikPandya #KKR #Cricket #Twitter #Fleets

A post shared by Kolkata Knight Riders (@kkriders) on Jun 13, 2020 at 7:56am PDT

Gill has come up the ranks very briskly. In 2018, he made his T20 debut for the Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL). There he turned up with a match-winning half-century against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In the next year, he was promoted to open the batting and he didn’t flatter to deceive by any means.

In the same year, he made his debut for Team India during the tour of New Zealand. Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, went on a break and vacated the number three slot after which Gill came in. Though he hasn’t played since that series, he remains to be in contention, playing for the A teams. He has also got national call-ups, but hasn’t quite been able to fit into the playing eleven.