Shubman Gill or Yasswi Jaiswal. Who do you think should be Rohit Sharma's partner in the World Cup playing XI? This question arises because Shubman Gill is currently the highest scorer of IPL 2024.
Shubman Gill was seen playing a captaincy innings against Punjab and the innings of 89 runs he played is currently the biggest individual innings of IPL 2024. Earlier, the highest score was of 85 runs by Sunil Narine, Shubhman Gill played an innings of 89 runs in forty-eight balls. When the entire top order had failed and this was a great innings as a captain. Till now, he has been doing well for Gujarat for a few years. However, after this the question arose whether Bhaiya Gill should be played or Jaiswal should be brought.
And this question becomes very important. Gill's supporters say that Gill has more consistency while Jaiswal's supporters say that Jaiswal has more aggression and anyway Gill is limited to Ahmedabad only. Today's innings of Shubhman Gill is also an innings of Ahmedabad. However, in the middle of this innings, there were many people who looked more angry. They said that if you had to play in Ahmedabad only, you should have played in November. If you had played when Pat Cummins was saying against Australia, then at least we would have had the World Cup today, but you did not play then. Now that you are playing, there are questions about your playing, but this question is a part of history, so we will not open many wounds, we will talk to you about the future because there is a World Cup after the IPL and in this World Cup, the constant discussion is whether to play Gill or the guys from Jaiswal.
According to me, if you look at the current form, then Jaiswal should get a chance according to the strike rate. However, in this IPL, be it Shubman Gill or Jaiswal, both failed in the first three matches. Shubman Gill scored 31 runs in 22 balls in the first match, 8 runs in 5 balls in the second match, 36 runs in 28 balls in the third match and 36 runs in 28 balls in the fourth match and similarly Jaiswal has also been a flop in the first three matches. And he is also expected to score runs in the next match. He showed some signs last time but he got out on the ball of that minor bowler of Mumbai Indians, after which he looked frustrated and we also looked frustrated.
However, Jaiswal has scored 700 plus runs in the Test series just before this IPL, so it would be a bit redundant to question Jaiswal so soon. Maybe he will come to his peak form in one or two matches and after that he will shine. Now the basic difference between Jaiswal and Gill is the strike rate.
Shubman Gill is an amazing player. If you had asked six months ago, there would have been no question about Gill's name. But Jaiswal, who is in Shubman Gill's place, is also consistent and along with consistency, aggression is his identity. In Test cricket, he made people talk about Jaiswal in front of baseball. And the second thing is that if you look at IPL also, the fastest half century is in Jaiswal's name, he scored 50 runs in 13 balls whereas Shubman Gill is not in your top 15 or top five.
However, Shubman has also been consistent. Especially in Ahmedabad, the consistency has been at a different level. This year, let's say three matches flopped but last year he was playing well with 129/42/104/101/94 runs and 36 runs. After which people said that he is going to be the next Virat Kohli, he is going to be the next king, a lot of things were said about him. But in the World Cup, Shubman Gill could not deliver as we and you expect, in fact not only the World Cup. Shubman Gill never played big matches like the World Test Championship. Shubman played in the finals in both the years of the World Test Championship and both the years he could not even score a half-century. Four innings in 2021 and 23, probably 2 years WTC. He flopped in both. Shubham Gill was also a flop in the World Cup 2023 and the final was in his Ahmedabad. We all were assuming that Shubman will score in Ahmedabad but today many people also supported Shubham for his innings. Irfan Pathan said that it was a controlled innings, a good innings. There were cricketing shots, he did not use much power, it was good to see him.
Shubman Gill is among those players who have scored the most 80 runs. He has done this feat seven times before the age of 24 in IPL. Ishan has done it three times, Iyer three times, March three times, Manish Pandey three times and Rahane three times, Sanju Samson has done it three times in T20. If you look after 2023, then you will have to read Jaiswal's name here. Jaiswal has scored 1408 runs in 47 innings after 2023. Surya has scored 1300 thirty-eight runs and Shubman Gill has scored 1300 in 34 innings. Here too it is almost equal. Rituraj is also below. 1261 runs in 32 innings, Rinku Singh has scored 1140 in 35 innings, although Jaiswal's season has been bad so far. He was out after scoring 24 runs against LSG, five runs against DC and just 10 runs against MI. But still those 50 runs in 13 balls and 700 plus in Tests are in my mind too. That's why I am still taking him as my first opener according to me. But after the performance given by Shubh Gill today, the discussion will intensify whether we can try Shubh in place of Jaiswal?