There were concerns amongst the fans and the former players when the Gujarat Titans took their captain, Shubman Gill, out just before the start of the Rajasthan Royals’ run chase. He stayed away from the proceedings with Rashid Khan taking the captain’s armband. It was for the first time in the history of the tournament that a skipper was replaced using the Impact Sub-rule after the conclusion of the first innings.
He scored 84 runs off 50 balls and played a key role in taking the team’s total to 209/4 in 20 overs. The right-handed batter hit 5 fours and 4 sixes in a contest that was dominated by 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Gill sat in the dugout and witnessed the hammering of his bowlers by a young batter, who scored a hundred in 35 balls, with the help of 11 sixes and 7 boundaries. Shubman was furious with some of the decisions taken by stand-in captain Rashid as GT lost the contest by 8 wickets in 15.5 overs.
Shubman spoke to Murali Kartik after the match and revealed the reason behind his absence during the run chase.
“I was experiencing back spasms, and the physio told me that he didn’t want to take a chance. We have a game coming up in a few days, so I was told to rest,” Shubman Gill said.
He also hailed the young talent for his magnificent batting. “He took the game away from us. Credit to them for winning the game. We could have done a couple of things better, but it is easy to say that from the dugout. It was his day, and he made full use of it. Tremendous hitting by him. However, we are not going to think a lot about this game as our focus is now on our next match in Ahmedabad, which is our happy hunting ground,” he added.