Australia cricketing legend Ricky Ponting believes that young India batter Shubman Gill is a 'very driven' person and he will be the future captain of India. Gill who is currently Rohit Sharma's deputy in the ICC Champions Trophy played an unbeaten 101-run match-winning knock against Bangladesh during India's first league match at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai.
The star batter will now be seen featuring for India in the high-voltage clash against Pakistan which will be played at the same venue.
“We've had a chance to catch up over the last couple of years, particularly around the IPL season. I like his demeanour. He seems like a very driven guy who wants to be the best that he possibly can be with batting and also as far as leadership's concerned,” Ponting told ICC Review.
“He just seems like a really nice character. A really softly spoken guy, very driven for what he wants to achieve in the game,” Ponting said.
The former Australia captain reckons that the one-day format suits Gill’s style of batting and believes that the young India opener will soon repeat the same in Test cricket.
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“He's been a very, very good international player for a number of years. He hasn't sort of transferred that over into Test Match cricket yet, but his white ball cricket over the last three or four years has been outstanding.
“Look, he's a big game player as well. He's played really well in IPLs over the last couple of years, obviously being captain of his franchise,” said Ponting.
Ponting, a two-time 50-over World Cup-winning captain, then explained why Gill has been excellent in ODI cricket.
“I just think that the white ball game really suits his style of play. He can come out and be nice and aggressive early on in the power play with the field up, get some boundaries away early by playing good, naturally aggressive cricketing shots.
“He's not a big hitter, he's not anyone that goes out there and tries to do anything outside of the way that he can naturally play. He just scores boundaries almost at will against fast bowling, against the white ball,” he noted.
Gill has played 51 ODIs and scored 2,688 runs with an average of 62.51 including eight centuries. The young batter's form will play a huge role during India vs Pakistan clash which will take place on February 23.