Stuff of dreams, says Shubman on his double century

Oh, what a feeling! Shubman Gill celebrates scoring his double century in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

“It (the double century) means a lot to me, “ said a visibly pleased Shubman Gill, the India opener who cracked a brilliant, match-winning 208 against New Zealand in the first ODI here on Wednesday.

“This is what dreams are made of. It’s amazing,” Gill said about joining Ishan Kishan in the 200-club. “He’s one of my best mates in the team and it’s amazing to be able to spend time with him. I was there when he scored his double hundred and it felt amazing,” he said at the post-match briefing here.

“I think in the first ODI against Sri Lanka and in the third ODI, I was set and looking to get a big score, but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Gill said.

“Once I was set, the main focus was to be there for the team and score as many runs as possible. And, it feels good when it pays off,” Gill said.

Showing intent

“Not a conscious effort to keep batting aggressively, I would say. But, with an extra fielder inside the circle, we see other teams pushing in the middle overs,” hesaid. “And, even today, when wickets were falling, my main focus was to show some intent to the bowler because it becomes very easy for the bowler to bowl dot balls if the batsman is not going to show any intent that he’s going to hit any boundaries — even if we have lost a wicket,” he explained.

“The idea was to avoid dot balls, show some intent and hit hard into the gaps. That is what I focused on doing,” said Gill, who became the fastest Indian to reach the 1000-run mark in ODIs.

“Making my dad (my primary coach) and Yuvraj paji, who has been my mentor and worked a lot on my batting, feel proud is a special feeling,” he said.

Closer than anticipated

“I was not really thinking of a double century, but once I hit sixes in the 47th over, I did feel that I could get there. Before that, I was playing the ball on merit,” Gill said.

“It feels nice when you want to do something special and everything you try comes off. It (double ton) has sunk in pretty well. However, the game turned out to be much closer than we anticipated,” said Gill.