<\/p>\n
F<\/span><\/span>or reasons that are never fully clear, cricket people gush about the aesthetics of left-handers. Left-handed cover drives are better. Left-handed late cuts are more languid. Shubman Gill is the right-handed version of a left-hander. Aside from the odd dismissal like the Indore Test, he makes all his shots look effortless. He is tall, slender, graceful, bending in the breeze, someone made of willow more than the bat that\u2019s in his hand. He has the power that comes of tensile strength, slimness that snaps back into shape and brings to bear all the force of that movement.<\/span><\/p>\n Halfway through the third day of the Ahmedabad Test between India and Australia, as the series finale wound its way along in the severest afternoon heat, Cameron Green tried bowling a bouncer. Gill\u2019s pull shot cracked it away. Only for a run, but it brought to mind the pulls that Green had smashed the day before on his way to a century. This run took Gill to 80. In Green\u2019s next over, Gill lashed two in a row through the covers. Soon enough they were both in the hundred club on Indian soil.<\/p>\n Both of these players are 23 years old. Both are the youngest batters in their teams, with the commensurate amount of potential growth. Very different in style, similar in significance. Different most notably in the way they have been managed. Green was identified within Australian cricket as a singular talent, picked at the age of 21 and left in the Test team until his modest returns grew. Gill was picked at the age of 21, made a defining contribution almost immediately, and has spent three separate periods out of the side with injury and omission in two years since.<\/p>\n Opening the batting for India is a high-jeopardy endeavour. After Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul had a rotating triumvirate with a smattering of Gautam Gambhir from 2014 through to 2018, Prithvi Shaw popped in for a hot minute, Mayank Agarwal teamed up with Hanuma Vihari, Rahul came back for Vihari, Rohit Sharma came back for Rahul, Shaw got another go before Gill\u2019s debut, Rohit got fit to replace Agarwal, Gill missed out for Rahul, back to Gill and Agarwal, a Rahul interregnum until Rohit returned, Agarwal went out, Cheteshwar Pujara pulled an emergency shift, batting briefly with Gill until it was hello old friend Rahul, then rejoined by Rohit, until what should be but surely won\u2019t be the last phase of Rahul now that Gill is back.<\/p>\n