IPL Has Played A Major Role In the Uprise Of Shubman Gill And Mohammed Siraj - Ravi Shastri

Head coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri believes that the Indian Premier League should also be credited for the success of the youngsters, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. India won the second Test of the series by 8 wickets and have levelled the series with two matches to play,

Captain, Ajinkya Rahane was the Man of the Match for his outstanding hundred. However, two debutants, Mohammed Siraj and Shubman Gill have also gained headlines for their impressive performances in Melbourne.

Replacing Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill had a challenging task in front of him facing a world-class Australian bowling attack. However, Gill, after taking a brief sighter, looked solid in both innings. He scored 45 from 65 balls in the first innings, and remained unbeaten in the second outing on the score of 35 off 36 balls.

That’s the brand of cricket we’ve been playing: Ravi Shastri

Mohammed Siraj has huge responsibilities on his shoulders: initially, he was filling in for the injured Mohammed Shami, and in Australia’s second innings, he and Jasprit Bumrah had to carry more workload as Umesh Yadav got injured while bowling.

However, Siraj recognized this as an opportunity and cashed on it. The pacer took 5 wickets in the match, supporting Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin brilliantly by not leaking runs and keeping a lid on Australia’s scoring rate.

This show of maturity by both debutants makes Ravi Shastri point out the youngsters play with and against the international cricketers during the IPL, and hence didn’t get fazed away by the difficult asks from them in Melbourne.

Another youngster, Navdeep Saini is likely to make his Test debut in the third Test in Sydney in place of the injured Umesh Yadav.

“That’s the way, that’s the brand of cricket we’ve been playing for the last three or four years. I think a lot has to do with IPL. The fact that they share dressing rooms with international players, they rub shoulders with the best, that complex factor disappears very quickly,” Ravi Shastri said after the match.

The coach is impressed by Shubman Gill’s approach in the second innings. In a short chase, Gill counter-attacked the Aussie bowlers when India lost two early wickets to give them no chance of any sort of a comeback.

“In the second innings, it’s very easy to get into a shell but he went out there and played his natural game. It was great from the team point of view,” he added.

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