“For me, it’s about playing ball by ball, assessing the situation again and again,” Gill said on the official broadcast after his player-of-the-match performance. “Maybe in the over where I hit three sixes, that’s when I got the momentum to play a big innings and I realized that maybe this is my day and I have to make it big because it is a good wicket to bat on.”
Gill doesn’t come across as a six-hitter – he was 42nd in the list of six-hitters in IPL 2022 – but has become one – he has 33 sixes this year, jointly second with Shivam Dubey. Are in place. Behind Faf du Plessis 36. Is the change conscious?
“(Hitting a six) is not a conscious decision. Obviously, you keep practicing, you want to keep growing, keep developing as a batsman,” he said. “But I think belief is more important and I had that this year and last year as well.”
“It helps when you’re having a good international season and performing well,” he said. “With me, I know it’s about starting (well); I know that once I start, I can continue.
“Last year, from the West Indies tour, that’s when I changed gears. I got injured before the IPL in 2021 and I was out for a few months. That’s when I started understanding the areas to work on and made some technical moves in December. “There was a change in my batting around when I was called for the New Zealand series right after the T20 World Cup.”
On Friday, Gill brought up his century off 49 balls on the first ball of the 15th over, bringing the 75,655 crowd present at the stadium to their feet. The journey from 50 to 100 was completed in just 17 balls.
“In the first few overs, it was a bit stagnant on the surface and after that because there was not that much grass on the wicket, the ball was coming in well,” Gill said at the halfway stage of the match. “I think with the outfield being a bit wet (due to rain before the match), the ball stops swinging after two overs and it becomes easier as we progress in the innings.”
The start was a bit slow for the Titans and Gill was out after five overs after scoring 20 runs in 15 balls. Opening partner Wriddhiman Saha (18 off 16) and No. 3B Sai Sudarshan (43 off 31) also faced difficulties. Gill was dismissed by Tim David in the last over of the powerplay when he was on 30 runs off 19 balls. But he slowly changed gears and lost his rhythm after completing his half-century. As well as 17 hits over the boundary, there were plenty of singles and doubles on a ground where one square boundary was much smaller than the other.
“Definitely (the short boundary) plays a role,” he said. “As a batsman, you have to know which side to target and you have to face the bowlers accordingly. It’s something That’s what was in my mind… If they are bowling in good areas then look for big boundaries, doubles. Short boundaries, you can go for it.”