If I had batted a little more normally, we would have won: Shubman Gill

Colombo (IANS). Opener Shubman Gill admitted that he should have taken charge of the team after failing to score his fifth ODI century. Had he batted normally, 266 could have been chased. Bangladesh defeated India by six runs in a thrilling Super Four match of the Asia Cup on Friday.

On a difficult pitch at the R Premadasa Stadium, where very few of his teammates were able to perform well with the bat, Gill played a brilliant inning of 121 off 133 balls against Bangladesh’s four-man spin attack. He made good use of his feet and crease and also relied on strike-rotation, hitting eight fours and five sixes.

But Gill’s dismissal, caught at long off on a delivery slow and outside the off stump from Mehidy Hasan, became the turning point in the match and despite Axar Patel’s brilliant innings of 42, India were all out for 259.

Gill said in the post-match press conference, “When you are batting there is so much adrenaline, sometimes you misjudge. It was a misjudgment on my part. When you got out, you saw That there was a lot of time left. If I had batted a little more normally or not as aggressively, we should have been able to win.”

He said, “Fortunately, it was not a final for us. These are the kind of learnings that as a batsman you want to take and move forward. Fortunately, this match was not a final for us and as a batsman “It’s those kinds of learnings in form. I like taking those lessons and improving.”

Gill also crossed the 1000-run mark in ODIs in 2023 and his excellent performance in difficult conditions against Bangladesh demonstrated his adaptability to different conditions. “On slow wickets, there are a lot of dot balls. Our conversation as a batting group is to reduce the dot balls and rotate the strike.”

“The track was slow and turning, so taking singles is not easy, especially for new batsmen. The point was to play it late and close to the body. On slow wickets, more runs are scored on the square of the wicket and down And less. So, that was the goal.”

Although Bangladesh’s spinners collectively took only four wickets, they were able to stem the run-flow in the middle overs, an aspect Gill said was still a work in progress for India. “No worries, but definitely this is an area we want to improve on. Before coming here we had a camp in Bengaluru and practiced on similar wickets.”

“The World Cup is such a long tournament, and as we progress in the tournament, the wickets will get a little slower. It is not easy for the batsmen coming in to rotate the strike and bowl dot balls. As a batting unit and bowling group “We want to get a handle on this.”