Not used to playing attack like that: Shubman Gill on Pakistan’s pace attack

India will take on Pakistan in their Asia Cup Super Four clash in Colombo on Sunday

Colombo: Ahead of his team’s Asia Cup Super Four clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, the Indian batsman Shubman Gill said on Saturday that not playing against a quality Pakistani bowling attack has proven to be one of the reasons why the Men in Blue sometimes struggle against them.

India will take on Pakistan in their Asia Cup Super Four clash in Colombo on Sunday. Talking about India’s problems with Pakistan’s left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi, Gill said in a pre-match press conference: “When you play at this level, you play with left-arm pacers earlier at some point in your career. We do not play Pakistan so much compared to the other sides. They have a quality bowling attack. When you don’t face bowling attacks often and you’re not used to it, it makes a difference.”

Talking about how contrasting he and his opening partner captain Rohit Sharma are, Gill said this contrast makes it difficult for the players to contain them. “I’m someone who likes to play the field on the power play. Rohit takes on the bowlers through the air.

This combination works well for us. How different we are as players makes it difficult for players to contain us,” Gill said.

Talking about his brief slump after the Indian Premier League (IPL), Gill said that sometimes it is just the quality of bowling that overcomes a batsman. “Yes, you go back to the good times (during a crisis). Sometimes it’s not even about technique. It’s just about the bowlers, they are also there to take wickets. You can get good deliveries.

When you play well, there are things that go in your favor. You just have to trust your game and keep making those big runs,” he said. When asked if players watch and follow Pakistan captain Babar Azam’s batting, Gill agreed and called him a “world-class player”. “Yes, we definitely followed it. When a player is doing well. Everyone looks at him to know why he is doing so well, what his specialty is. The same goes for Babar. He is a world-class player and we all look up to him,” Gill said.

Talking about the differences in the bowling of Pakistan pacers Shaheen and Naseem Shah, Gill said the former offers more swing but the latter has more pace and bowls in good areas. Gill said the team is clear about their roles and batting positions ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup, which will begin from October 5.

Talking about the team’s plans with their batting, Gill said: “Our plans will be the same, to give a solid foundation and then dominate. In that last match against Pakistan, our top order didn’t do well. But still, we did about 260 and it looked like we would do 310-320 runs at some point on that ground.

These are good signs.” Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir (traveling reserve).

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumraj, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj . , Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (travelling reserve).