Skipper Shubman Gill was impressed with pacer Gurnoor Brar and left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey’s debuts where they headlined India’s seven-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the rain-curtailed one-day international in Dharamsala on Saturday.
Brar, has been added to the ODI setup, keeping an eye on the World Cup next year in South Africa. The tall pacer bowled quick at 140 clicks and produced a brillinat spell, returning figures of 3 for 27.
On the hand, Dubey too impressed with figures of 3 for 47, bouncing back well after conceding runs in his initial overs to restrict Afghanistan to 194, which India chased down comfortably riding on Gill’s unbeaten 84 off 66 balls.
“Gurnoor’s pace, consistent lengths that he hit and swing was impressive. Harsh went for 16 in his first over but still kept tossing the ball up which was very impressive,” said Gill at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Gill called the Rohit Sharma run out as unfortunate, as he almost collided with the bowler at the non-striker’s end who ran across to collect the ball while responding to the former captain’s call for a single.
“Rohit saw the replay and said it’s fine about the run out,” Gill said.
On the blinder that he took in the slips to dismiss AM Ghazanfar, Gill said that it was all about practice.
“I have practised slip catches a lot. I was telling my fielding coach that I haven’t taken any brilliant catch and happy to have taken it,” he said.
While Gill praised Rahmanullah Gurbaz for his brilliant century (102 off 51 balls) that had eight sixes and as many boundaries, he lauded the effort of his bowlers, who bowled really well in the death overs.
“It was kind of a T20 game. We started well, they pulled it away from us. Gurbaz was brilliant. The way we bowled in the last half was brilliant. The wicket was brilliant (to bat on). There was grip for our spinners, ball came off nicely when they bowled.”
Because of the rain the first match became a 25-overs-a-side contest, Gill believes that ODI matches are won and lost in the middle overs.
“Middle overs, in one-day games, are crucial. If we build pressure and create opportunities with ball, and score at six (runs per over) with bat without losing wickets, it’s great.”
Meanwhile, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said his team were at least 30 runs short on a good batting strip.
“It was a tough game (and losing) back-to-back wickets was the reason, I felt if we scored 220-230 that’d be a good target when Gurbaz and I were batting. But then wickets fell and we were 30-40 (runs) short.”
He also regretted his shot selection off Dubey’s bowling.
“In my mind, I was targeting the left-arm spinner towards the shorter boundary. After Gurbaz fell, we made mistakes. The wicket was a bit flat. We weren’t that disciplined with the ball either.”
