After the youthful opening batter hit a double century in the first one-day international match against New Zealand on Wednesday, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt stated that “cricket needs a player” like Shubman Gill.
The match was played between Pakistan and New Zealand.
At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Gill hit 208 runs off of 149 balls, which paved the way for India’s victory by 12 runs over New Zealand.
He became the youngest player in the history of international cricket to ever score two centuries. Butt made the comment that Gill has the potential to become one of the all-time greats of the game if he keeps playing at this level.
“When I first saw Shubman Gill play, it was in the final match of the Test championship against New Zealand. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of his.
The grace and sophistication with which he executes his moves is very admirable. The only thing that worried me was why he couldn’t get a high score. I couldn’t understand it. Yesterday, however, he participated in a quite different version of cricket.
Extremely few individuals have reached this level of completion in their style at such a young age. My impression is that he is typical of his sort.
I am not suggesting that he has accomplished everything in his career; nevertheless, if he keeps playing at this level and continues to put in a lot of effort, he will be well on his way to being a legendary figure in his field “Butt stated on his own channel on YouTube.
Butt also compared Gill to a number of the game’s all-time greats, mostly because of the grace and style with which Gill bats in the middle.
“Because of the way he played yesterday’s game, he demonstrated that he is capable of not just hitting for power but also playing responsible innings, even if he continued to lose the main players at the opposite end of the field.
The sport of cricket requires more players with his skill set since current players lack the kind of touch that legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Mark Waugh, Saaed Anwar, and Jacques Kallis possessed. The game of cricket has lost some of its elegance, and the kind of innings that he played is what makes the game truly beautiful “he continued.