How Shubman Gill silenced Pakistan with his words in the U-19 World Cup

India’s upcoming batting sensation and U-19 World Cup Man of the Series, Shubman Gill, opened up about his century against Pakistan in the semi-final. He had been in great form throughout the series but his century final came when it mattered most. As one would expect in any game involving Pakistan and India, the aggression from both sides was evident and the U-19 story was no different.

On a career-defining knock, that also earned him an IPL contract worth Rs. 1.8 Cr with Kolkata Knight Riders, Gill said, “It is one of my best innings. Before that, I was a little nervous because we were playing Pakistan. They had a good bowling attack and I was under a bit of pressure and there was so much hype around the game.”

‘Got motivated after they began sledging me’

“We got off to a good start and the opposition was sledging. That pumped me up and I also got involved. They just abused me (‘yeh Bangladesh ke bowlers nahi hai’), so I replied ‘hum bhi Pakistan ke batsmen nahi hai’. I got really motivated by that,” as quoted by Yahoo Cricket in an interview.

The U-19 World Cup was underway when the IPL mega-auction took place. India U 19 Coach Rahul Dravid had mentioned that he had a discussion with the young players where he emphasized on the importance of keeping their focus on the World Cup intact and keeping the thoughts of the auction secondary.

On that, the 18-year-old from Fazilka said: “I was actually sleeping when people came and told me that I had been picked up by KKR. I was more focused on the U-19 World Cup rather than the auction because the Under-19 World Cup is a once in a lifetime thing.”

Recently, Gill also signed a bat endorsement deal with CEAT putting him in the big league with the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishan Kishan.

Here is the video of the day

For more cricket news visit Crictracker.com.