“Sky is the limit and he is going up and up” - Sunil Gavaskar’s special words of praise for Shubman Gill

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar hailed Shubman Gill after the latter notched up his third hundred of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 edition in Qualifier 2 on Friday, May 26. Praising the youngster, the Indian legend said that the way Gill is batting, the ‘sky is the limit’ for him.

Gill scored a sublime 129 off 60 balls in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2023 against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The right-handed batter struck seven fours and 10 sixes as GT posted 233/3 after being sent into bat. In response, MI were bowled out for 171 as Gujarat confirmed their spot in the IPL 2023 final.

Speaking after the game, Gavaskar stated that he was running out of adjectives to describe Gill’s brilliance. He told Star Sports:

"It is very difficult to find more adjectives apart from saying that the cricketing world is at his feet. The sky is the limit for him. That's all I can say. And his feet really. The certainty of the feet movement. The certainty of playing forward and back, that's so important and essential for a good batter. At the same time, keep your balance as well and that's what he does."

The 73-year-old added that if Gill continues to apply himself in the manner that he has been doing over the last year or so, his good form is likely to continue because of the 'correctness' of his technique. Gavaskar elaborated:

"If he keeps doing that, runs are going to flow. Because there is a correctness about his cricket and a correctness about his batting. You sometimes feel like he has played across the line. He hasn't really played across the line. He has played at the very last moment. He hasn't been wild trying to play across the line.

"This is the third century he has got in this IPL. He has improved with every innings. Now he has got 129, the highest score in this year's IPL. So the sky is the limit and he is going up and up. So that's good news for not just for Gujarat Titans, but for Indian cricket.”

In the match against MI on Friday, Gill featured in a 54-run stand with Wriddhiman Saha (18) for the opening wicket. He then added 138 runs for the second wicket with Sai Sudharsan (43 off 31).

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Shubman Gill’s incredible IPL 2023 stats

Gill is the Orange Cap holder in IPL 2023. In 16 matches, he has clobbered 851 runs at an average of 60.79 and a strike rate of 156.43, with three hundreds and four fifties to his name.