'What they make of the future is entirely up to them' - Sunil Gavaskar's advice to double-centurions Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill

Two young Indian cricketers recently made it to the illustrious 200-run club in ODIs. Prior to Shubman Gill’s entry into the elite club after his double century against New Zealand, Ishan Kishan achieved the feat while playing against Bangladesh in December 2022 as he became the player to score the fastest-ever double ton. Apart from the two youngsters, only three other Indian players have claimed the feat, that being Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Rohit Sharma.

Ishan and Gill are both natural openers, and even though the two youngsters have expressed their mutual respect, the competition to bat alongside Rohit Sharma will only get more fascinating in the future. Ishan was forced to miss the three ODIs against Sri Lanka because the Indian management backed Gill over Kishan, but if the past few years are any indicator, things can change in Indian cricket in a heartbeat.

Ishan and Gill are in the early stages of their career and have a long way to go. However, Sunil Gavaskar has warned the two against being overly confident. Rajesh Chauhan, Karun Nair, Laxmipathy Balaji, and SS Das are just a few players who have had a fading career after a bright beginning in Indian cricket. Gavaskar hopes Gill and Ishan's names don't join this list.

“In the last one month or so, there have been two double centuries cracked by Indian batsmen in one-day internationals. Both were magnificent innings by young men brimming with confidence and with a huge future ahead of them. They are in their early 20s, so what they make of the future is entirely up to them. Will they keep their head and feet on the ground after these stupendous knocks or are they going to get carried away so much that they think that all that they have to do is to just turn up at the crease and the runs will flow by automatically,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

Today's youngsters are super confident, and that’s a wonderful thing: Gavaskar

The India great praised the fearlessness of today's team's young players and noted that it results from the fact that cricketers have other platforms to express themselves, the most well-known of which is the Indian Premier League. Gavaskar hopes that Gill and Ishan's success in the IPL will prevent thoughts of setbacks at the international level from being erased.

“Today's youngsters are super confident, and that’s a wonderful thing. The worry of being dropped from the national team doesn’t enter their minds as they have the cushion of an IPL contract. Therefore, failure doesn’t scare them and they can go out and play what is popularly known as fearless cricket when it is actually worry-free cricket. When being dropped from the national team is not a worry then a player can go out and play bindaas cricket for there’s always the IPL with its minimum 14 matches in which to make people forget the international failures,” Gavaskar concluded.

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