Dubai, Sep 22 (PTI) The contrasting batting styles of inseparable best buddies Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill makes them a riveting "fire-and-ice" combination in India's T20 cricket set-up, feels skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
On Sunday, what looked like a tricky chase of 172 in the Asia Cup clash against arch foes Pakistan, became a cakewalk because the two best friends since the age of 10, conjured an eye-catching 105-run opening stand.
Abhishek went on to score a scintillating 74 off 39 balls, his first fifty in the tournament while Gill shrugged off disappointment of an underwhelming league stage with a facile 47 off 28 balls.
"It's like a fire-and-ice combination. They complement each other really well. And that's what I want to see. If someone is batting brilliantly, the other can take the back-seat and rotate the strike. It was required today to have a very good start. And they did (provide that)," Suryakumar told mediapersons after India's six-wicket win in the Super 4 game here on Sunday.
Having played together since Punjab U-12 days, they know each other's game well and switch gears and swap roles long before the opposition can figure what is unfolding.
If one looks at their scoring pattern, Abhishek prefers the aerial route while Gill bisects the fielders on both sides with a surgeon's precision.
If Abhishek prefers heavy hitting, Gill's go-to method is silken grace.
Against spin, Gill looked a million dollars but he could take the tab of Abhishek's dinner bill as his friend bowled an extensive spell of left-arm spin to him prior to the Pakistan game.
Friendship off the field, Suryakumar feels always helps in growing good on-field understanding.
"It's really important to be very good friends off the field. When you open together, that bond matters. Sometimes you don't have to say anything in the middle," he said.
"Just a look (glance) is enough - to take a cheeky single, to complement each other if one's flying or if one's struggling. That friendship comes into the picture when they bat together," the skipper couldn't have summed it up more accurately.
If there is anything called net session obsession, these two who can match each other.
Abhishek and Gill are sure to be present even on optional days when no one else bothers. Even if that meant playing a full 40-over game against Oman in the sapping Abu Dhabi heat, taking a two-hour bus journey one way from Dubai and returning to the ICC Academy for a session the next day to help each other.
During the COVID phase, both stayed at Yuvraj Singh's house in Chandigarh, would do nets together and train with the white ball legend in his home gymnasium.
Suryakumar, a pioneer of innovative T20 hitting also decoded the two batters, especially Abhishek, who has grown by leaps and bounds in past six to eight months.
So what has changed for Abhishek? "It's just the way he is. Abhishek is very selfless when it comes to his batting style. In the Powerplay, he goes hard, but even after that he knows what is required. He analyses situations, he's learning from every game.
"Most importantly, he never misses practice. Even if he doesn't want to bat, he'll be at the ground, doing something. If you keep working that hard, God always has plans for you," the skipper put forth his take.
In case of Gill, Suryakumar thinks that what makes his deputy special is his innate sense of how to score runs with low risk high-reward cricket shots.
"With Shubman, everyone knows what kind of player he is," Suryakumar said, adding, "The only thing I'll say is he knows how to score runs. Today he backed his shots, took fewer risks, trusted his strokes." "And that reverse sweep - I was really happy. He's been working on it a lot," the skipper informed.
What he didn't say was how Abhishek bowled those extra deliveries in nets to help him perfect that.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
