IPL 2023: Former India head coach and captain Ravi Shastri has put his chips on young Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill to break Virat Kohli’s mammoth record of most runs in a single IPL season. In IPL 2016 season, the former India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli made 973 runs at an astonishing average of 81.08 and a strike rate of over 152. In that season, Kohli went to make four hundreds and seven fifties in the 16 matches he played. This season, Gill has 116 runs so far in his matches with a healthy strike rate of 145. Follow Indian Premier League 2023 LIVE updates with InsideSport.IN
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Shastri on Gill’s chance of breaking Kohli’s record
During a question-and-answer session through #AskStar, Shastri picked Gill as the one with ability to surpass Kohli, adding that opening the batting helps immensely in scoring extra runs.
“He (Gill) has to be an opening batsman, because only then will he get many opportunities to score runs. I feel, it is Shubman Gill because he is in good form and also because he plays top of the order. So he will get good number of opportunities to score runs.”
“The pitches are good, so if he can score 80-100 runs consecutively in two or three innings, then at that point of time only he will already have 300-400 runs.”
“According to me, it is very difficult to break the record, because 900 plus runs is huge but one thing is opening batsmen will get two extra matches and two extra innings, so opening batsmen can only break this record if it is possible,” Shastri said to Star Sports.
Gill’s IPL record
Shubman Gill completes 2,000 runs in the IPL.
One of the most promising youngsters! pic.twitter.com/weXvE4hPk2
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 9, 2023
On Sunday in Gujarat Titans match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Gill completed 2,000 runs in his IPL career.
In 77 matches he has played so far, Gill has scored 2,016 runs at an average of 32.52 and a strike rate of 126.24.
Gill’s best season came last year, when he played a key role in Gujarat Titans triumph in their maiden season, scoring 483 runs in 16 innings.