When Rahul Dravid's Advice Shaped The Entire Landscape Of Shubman Gill's Career

There is no hiding from the fact that Rahul Dravid is known for resurrecting many young Indian cricketers’ careers. One among the young prospects who got the privilege to learn insights from legendary Dravid is Shubman Gill. The latter can’t thank the legend enough because he was such a big help and today, Gill has turned out to be a refreshingly vibrant player.

Regarded as future of India, Shubman Gill opened up about how India batting great Rahul Dravid played an important role in helping him. Gill played under the Dravid-coached India ‘A’ and India Under-19 teams wherein he showcased his mettle. Gill further added saying that he certainly owes a lot to the former India captain, who has now taken over as chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

“He had a lot of influence. I met him for the first time in 2016 and till now I am in touch with him. Rahul Sir has seen me from the start, he knows my game well and he knows how to shape my cricket. So he has looked after me well,” the Punjab batsman said at the launch of Cinthol’s #TurnDownTheHeat programme in Mumbai.

The young batting sensation shared Dravid’s biggest tip to him that changed his life. “His biggest advice was that you should try to become the best version of yourself; don’t try to play like someone else.”

Dravid’s advice helped Gill to tread with caution

Dravid’s strong piece of advice gave a much-needed boost to Shubman Gill. The latter who was an integral part of India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning team last year has since been statistically very good in numbers across all formats of the game he has played. The bright talent has a staggering average of 69 in 15 first-class games, with an aggregate of 1,535 runs, including 4 centuries and 9 fifties.

He also recently became the youngest ever Indian cricketer to hit a first-class double century when he scored an unbeaten 204 from 250 balls for India ‘A’ in the West Indies. His ever-so consistent on-field performances earned him a maiden call-up to the Indian Test team for the series against South Africa and the upcoming two-Test series against Bangladesh.

It was a huge learning experience: Shubman Gill

He may not get a chance to spice it up in any of the three Tests against South Africa, which India won 3-0. However, Gill says it was a massive learning experience for a budding cricketer like him.

“You obviously get to learn a lot when you share the dressing room with such big players. You see how they prepare before the match and how much they focus before going out to bat during a match, how they pace their innings when they play in a match. So I got to learn those things,” he said.

Shubman Gill’s forgettable start in international cricket was indeed a nightmare, scoring an aggregate of just 16 runs in 2 ODIs he played in New Zealand earlier this year. But that is not the end of the story. He believes that he still has a lot of time to tweak his technique to those conditions.

“I can’t expect from myself that whenever I got out to bat I will score a century. Obviously, things take time. It was a good experience for me because we won the series and those wickets were tough too. I got to learn things like how to adjust to those conditions and how to absorb pressure.”