India’s national cricket team’s star left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh has spoken openly on the difference between the captaincy styles of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma.
Arshdeep Singh spoke on the topic after the end of the first ODI of the series between the India national cricket team and the Australia national cricket team at the Perth Stadium on Sunday, October 19.
India’s top 3 failed in the first ODI
The top three players of the Indian team – Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli – failed miserably in the first ODI against the Australian team. Former captain Rohit Sharma was the first player to be out after scoring 8 runs on the fourth ball of the fourth over.
Then, Virat Kohli was out for zero on the first ball of the 7th over. Soon, after being out for 10 runs on the first ball of the 9th over, Shubman Gill was back in the hut behind the two Indian giants.
Rohit, Gill and Kohli together scored only 18 runs, which was the lowest combined score by the trio batting in an ODI.
The performance of this trio was quite disappointing as there were a lot of expectations from them. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were making a comeback to international cricket and practiced extensively in the nets to prepare themselves for the matches.
On the other hand, Shubman Gill had the burden of captaincy on his shoulders and the team management would be hoping to see him repeat the heroics of Anderson-Tendulkar.
Talking about Virat Kohli, he played an expansive drive off Mitchell Starc and Cooper Connolly took a brilliant catch. With this dismissal, Mitchell Starc became the second bowler after James Anderson in international cricket to dismiss Virat Kohli for ducks twice. Also, this was the first time in 30 ODI innings in Australia that Virat Kohli was out for a duck.
They give you proper freedom – Arshdeep Singh on Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill
India suffered a crushing defeat by 7 wickets in the opening match of the ODI series as they could only score 136/9 on the board, and Australia were given a target of 131 runs to chase in the 26-overs-per-side contest, which they achieved easily.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Arshdeep Singh was asked about the difference between Gill and Rohit as captains. He replied that both are very similar and they can be called captains of bowlers. As quoted by RevSportz, he said:
“I have played very little in ODIs, so I can’t tell the difference yet, but I would say that both of them are proper bowling captains. They give you proper freedom, and even today Shubman, whatever plans we had, he said, ‘Bowl freely as per your plans and just enjoy the moment.’
We knew we didn’t have that many runs but we just wanted to express ourselves – Arshdeep Singh
Arshdeep Singh said he got a simple message from his captain to express himself as there were not enough runs on the board. He said:
“We knew we didn’t have that many runs but we just wanted to express ourselves, that was their message. And this is just the beginning and they will definitely have a great time ahead.”
While talking to journalists, Arshdeep Singh also said that he tries to adapt to whatever format he is playing as quickly as possible and is trying to develop himself as a bowler. He said:
“I try to understand as quickly as possible how other batsmen are playing and how much help I am getting from the wickets. So I keep trying to learn what format I have to bowl and what help I am getting on which wicket. So I keep trying to develop as a player.”
Also read: Shubman Gill blames Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli for India’s defeat to Australia in the first ODI