Virender Sehwag criticizes Shubman Gill for his batting approach

Gujarat's first game in the Indian T20 league was a memorable one for them and their fans as they beat Lucknow by five wickets. It was an absolute thriller as Gujarat's lower middle-order produced an excellent comeback to win the game for their side. However, their opener Shubman Gill was dismissed for a three-ball duck.

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In just the third ball of the second innings, the batter slashed the ball hard, only for it to go up in the air and fall in the big hands of Deepak Hooda. It was an irresponsible shot as there were still 117 balls remaining. Thus, Virender Sehwag was unimpressed with Gill's batting approach.

He went on to criticize the youngster's style of batting in the shortest format of the game as well. Sehwag stated that Gill need not play the cheeky shots. While speaking to Cricbuzz, he also said that the 22-year-old shouldn't go off track in the process of improving his strike rate.

"I think he is a batter ODI player. Because in T20 cricket, those players succeed who can hit boundaries at will inside the Powerplay. That is what he needs to work on. He has given statements and said that I have learnt some cheeky shots, but with his batting, he does not need to play cheeky shots. Even if he plays normal cricket, he can give a better start.

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He should not forget that when T20 cricket comes around, he either plays too fast or too slow. Last year, he had a strike rate of 120 and we thought that he should increase it. This year, I hope he does not start at 150 and goes off track. Strike rate can be improved while playing normally which Badoni and Hooda showed," said Virender Sehwag.

Further on, the legendary opener cited the example of Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and himself to explain that one doesn't necessarily need to play cheeky shots to score runs. It is to be noted that Gill was released by Kolkata ahead of the mega auction. He was then one of the three players to be signed by Gujarat and thus, there are a lot of hopes from him.

"But Gill needs to get there. He scores 25-30 runs and gets out. The strike rate will increase once you reach 60, 70 or 80. That is when you can play freely. Did Sachin Tendulkar or I or Gautam Gambhir as openers play those cheeky shots. I don’t think so. You can score runs before being cheeky and score quickly," he added.