Duleep Trophy: Gill to open batting against Team �B�, Prasidh unavailable

New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS) Shubman Gill, the captain of Team ‘A’ in the Duleep Trophy round one, has confirmed that he will open the batting against Team ‘B’, starting on Thursday. He added that India pacer Prasidh Krishna will not be available for the first round game to be held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Krishna underwent surgery on February 23 this year on his left proximal quadriceps tendon and has been on rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He didn’t even play in the recent Maharaja T20 Trophy, where his team Mysuru Warriors eventually won the title.

“This (Duleep Trophy) is a big tournament as every match is important for us. We are playing against some players whom we generally play with in the Indian team. So, we will get to see a good competition. I will be opening here, and the wicket looks quite good.”

“There is some grass on the wicket. Hopefully, on Day 3 and 4, the spinners will get some help. But initially, it looks like there will be some help for the fast bowlers. The playing eleven has not been decided yet. He (Prasidh) is not available for the first match,” said Gill to reporters in Bengaluru.

In 25 Tests, Gill has made 1492 runs at an average of 35.52. Despite amassing 452 runs in nine innings during this year’s Test series against England and averaging 56.50, Gill remarked he is yet to be satisfied with his performances in the longer format.

“I haven't reached my best expectations so far in Tests, but we have 10 Test matches ahead of us. So, hopefully, after these 10 Test matches are over, I'll be able to meet my expectations.”

India are set to play five Tests at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand before heading over to Australia to play five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Gill, who bats at number three for India, admitted the demands of playing white-ball cricket has taken some sheen off his defensive game, as aspect he’s working to improve on, especially against spinners.

“I worked on my defence a little bit more, especially against the spinners. Playing on turning tracks, if you are not able to have that confidence in your defence, if you are playing on a turning track, you should be able to defend a lot more and then you play scoring shots.”

“With more T20 and playing on, I wouldn't say flat tracks, but batting-friendly tracks more in the white-ball, I feel it takes away a little bit of your defensive games over a period of time. So that was my focus in the England series.”

He also informed about talk of workload management happening in the team ahead of a long season of Test cricket. “Definitely, there has been a talk among the selectors and players about the workload. But I think everyone has played a lot of cricket to be able to understand and realise what they need to do out there when they are playing a match especially, and it's more so for the bowlers, I would say. I'm pretty sure the bowlers have had a conversation with the selectors and everyone about how they want to manage their workload.”

This year has seen Gill rise in the leadership ranks, starting from being Gujarat Titans captain in IPL 2024 to captaining India on T20I tour of Zimbabwe and being vice-captain on Sri Lanka tour. Now, with the leadership mantle in Duleep Trophy, Gill explained how there’s been change in himself after being exposed to leadership.

“I did well in the England series and then captained in the IPL. Every match, series or tournament that you play, you tend to learn a lot more about yourself. Even if you are the captain or not, irrespective of that, you tend to learn a lot more certain things about yourself, and your game.”

“More so if you are a captain, then you get to know a lot more about other players because it's important for the captain to have a connect with the players. If you want someone to keep you there 100%, you should have a connect with the players.”

“You should know their weaknesses and strengths. So in terms of that, definitely there's been some change. There's been a lot more conversations, especially when you are the captain or the vice-captain, with the players, especially one-on-one.”"There's nothing easy or difficult. You'd have played a lot of age-group cricket with a lot of these player so there's a lot of fun. And if you're enjoying the captaincy role as well and to lead by performance as well. So if these things are in order, you'll be enjoying everything,” he concluded.