Shubman Gill elated at Indian team call-up, wants to push for 2019 World Cup spot

Shubman Gill

At 1 AM on 13th January 2019, India’s U19 World cup winning star Shubman Gill got a surprise of a lifetime, as the BCCI included him for the limited overs tour of New Zealand, as a replacement of KL Rahul.

Hailing from Fazilka, Punjab, Shubman Gill has scored 1,089 runs from nine first-class matches and 1,529 from 36 List A games and this maiden India call-up meant a lot to Gill, who shared his excitement with indiatvnews.com.

“It was a surprise call-up for me. I was just going to sleep and suddenly at around 1 AM, I got messages from reporters saying that I’ve been selected and then I opened one of the WhatsApp messages and then I saw me and Vijay Shankar are replacing KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya. For the first 15-20 seconds, I was in a state of shock,” said Gill.

“After that, I went and told my father. For the first 10-15 minutes, I thought this is more of an expectation type but not the sure one but after a while, I read a few articles on the internet that it is official. So, my father also saw. So, really feeling good,” said an upbeat Gill.

Gill also made an impression in the IPL 2018 playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in a role of finisher. He shared the dressing room with the likes of Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Dinesh Karthik in the KKR dressing room.

Gill said, “I’m really excited to share the dressing room with them and I even spoke to Prithvi during the Test series (versus West Indies) and he said all of them are really nice. There presence will help me. DK bhaiya ne mujhe message bhi kia tha (Dinesh Karthik had messaged me).”

He wants to grab any opportunity that comes his way and said, “If I get an opportunity, I’m ready to bat at any number but given the preference. Then I’ll say I’m an opener but if I’m given an opportunity at No.4 or No.5, then I’m ready to bat at that position.”

He also wanted to make a push for a spot in the 2019 World Cup and said, “If I get an opportunity and make it to the XI and do well for the team and the country, then there are chances that I might make the World Cup squad,” he said when asked if he now wants to push for a ticket to England later in the summer.”

(indiatvnews.com inputs)

Source: circleofcricket.com

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