All you need to know about Shubman Gill

Shubman Gill‘s meteoric rise continues with a maiden call-up to the India ODI squad late on Saturday. A dramatic turn of events will soon see the 19-year-old batting prodigy flying to New Zealand for a five-match ODI and three-match T20I series.

Gill has long been earmarked as the next big thing in Indian cricket having been part of India’s ICC U-19 World Cup squad that won its record fourth title last year in New Zealand. Batting at the No. 3 spot, he made heads turn with his Player of the Tournament performance, hitting 372 runs in five innings, averaging 124.

His stunning numbers made him an instant hit in the IPL auction where he was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders for a cool INR 1.89 crore. He played 13 matches for KKR last season, scoring 203 runs at 33.83 including an unbeaten 57.

Gill had an outstanding first-class season for Punjab, scoring 790 runs in five matches at an average of 98.75 in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. He struck two centuries – 148 against Hyderabad and 268 vs Tamil Nadu – apart from five half-centuries as well.

In nine first-class matches, he has 1089 runs with three hundreds and seven fifties. His List A career has seen him score 1529 runs in 36 innings with fours centuries and seven half-centuries.

Gill’s Punjab teammate and veteran India batsman Yuvraj Singh had termed him a special talent who would play for the national team post ICC World Cup 2019 slated to be held later this year. “He is a special talent. After a long time there is a young guy whose batting I like to watch. He is very exciting. After the 2019 World Cup, he can make it to the (Indian) side. He should represent India for a long time but it depends on how well he is looked after,” Yuvraj had said.