Kolkata Knight Riders mentor David Hussey has backed under-fire Shubman Gill to turn the tables in the coming matches for the team. Gill has been under the scanner as he hasn’t been able to get going in the ongoing season of the IPL. The right-hander has thus far scored 80 runs in five matches at an average of 16 and a strike rate of 121.21.
Gill has gone past the 20-run mark on two occasions but Hussey believes the talented batsman will end the tournament as one of the highest run-getters. The right-hander from Punjab, had a dream start to his Test career as he scored 259 runs against Australia in the three Test matches he played. Gill also played a match-winning knock of 91 runs in the historic Gabba Test match.
However, he wasn’t able to continue the same form against England in the four-match series as he could only muster 119 runs in seven innings at a paltry average of 19.83. Gill hasn’t been able to turn the tide in his favour in the five matches of the IPL and has failed to give a good start to his team.
“One thing I do know is that he took the Test match arena by storm in Australia,” Hussey said. “The way he works on his game in the nets, he’s very specific. He’s got a great work ethic and I reckon all I can say is probably form will come and go, but class is always permanent. He is one class individual off the field but also an exceptionally talented player on the field. Mark my words he’ll be one of the highest-scoring individuals by the end of the tournament. He’s an absolute class act.”
Meanwhile, KKR have failed to get going with the bat and Hussey believes the team needs to get a partnership in the middle-over, so that a perfect platform can be set for a finisher like Andre Russell but KKR haven’t been able to do that as their middle-order has disappointed.
“Really, we just needed to get a partnership going at that stage when Andre was ready to come in next,” he said. “Dre is probably at his scintillating best when he has maybe three or four overs to go and he can hit 30 or 40 runs off about 15 balls and yeah, in a perfect world, he can go at No. 3 and make 200 I guess, but wasn’t tonight. Yeah, maybe look at all strategies when it comes to the batting going forward with the Kings to play in a couple of days’ time, and yeah, everything’s on the table.”
KKR could only manage 133 runs and according to their skipper Eoin Morgan they were at least 40 runs short. The Knight Riders will want to come up with a better batting show and hopefully Shubman Gill can provide a good start to his team.
Meanwhile, Gill had scored 440 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2020 but his strike rate was a mundane 117.96. KKR will now move to Ahmedabad, where they will face Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium on 26th April.
