- Nasima Akter
Ishan Kishan Playfully Slaps Shubman Gill Before IPL Match
Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan are two of the brightest stars in Indian cricket. The two are top-order batsmen who have made a big impact in the Indian cricket team. Gill is one of the few cricketers to have scored a century in all three formats of the game, while Kishan is only the fourth Indian to hit a double century in ODIs. These two young talents are not only teammates on the Indian cricket team, but they are also good friends and roommates on India's tours.
Recently, in an interview with bcci.tv, Gill revealed that Kishan can be quite mischievous, which can disrupt his pre-match routine.
"Ishan always spoils my pre-match routine, he does not let me sleep. He uses his iPad without the airpods and watches movies at full volume. Then I swear at him to lower the volume or to put on the airpods. So, he tells me that I am the one who is sleeping in his room, so the rules are his. We fight every day, this is my pre-match routine," he said.
Despite their off-field antics, Gill and Kishan are focused on their on-field performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. Gill is playing for the Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans, while Kishan is playing for the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians. The two teams faced each other in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, and before the match, the duo had a playful interaction. Kishan could be seen cheekily slapping Gill, and then the latter returned the favour.
In the match, Gujarat Titans produced a clinical performance to outclass Mumbai Indians by 55 runs in a completely one-sided IPL encounter. Set a stiff target of 208, Mumbai Indians were stopped at 152 for nine.
Mumbai Indians did not get off to the kind of start they would have liked and were struggling at 29 for one after the loss of captain Rohit Sharma's wicket in the sixth over, failing miserably to utilize the powerplay. Rohit got a leading edge while trying to work the ball on the onside, giving a return catch to his opposite number, Hardik Pandya, in the second over.
After the seamers did their job, star leg-spinner Rashid Khan came on and bowled a very economical first over. Mumbai Indians managed to score 13 runs in the seventh over before Rashid ended Ishan Kishan's painstaking stay in the middle. Kishan consumed as many as 21 balls for his 13 runs.
Three balls later, Rashid had Tilak Varma trapped in front of the wicket to leave Mumbai Indians reeling at 45 for three in the eighth over. From there, the five-time winners could not do enough to challenge the defending champions.
The Gujarat Titans, on the other hand, had an impressive batting display with captain Hardik Pandya leading from the front with a quickfire 56 off 25 balls. He was well-supported by Shubman Gill, who scored 47 off 31 balls, and Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 41 off 23 balls. They set a daunting target of 208, and the Titans' bowlers did the rest to ensure a comfortable win for the team.
Both Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have bright futures ahead of them in Indian cricket. They are two of the most exciting young talents in the game, and their performances in the IPL 2023 have been closely watched by cricket fans around the world. It will be interesting to see how they continue to develop and contribute to Indian cricket in the coming years.
If you want to read more on the players and their friendship with other cricketers, you may be interested in when Gill and Kohli's interaction went viral.
