When Rahul Dravid's challenge did wonders to Shubman Gill!

Christchurch: Shubman Gill with his amazing batting throughout the ICC Under-19 World Cup has proved that he is the next big thing in Indian Cricket. But do you know from where did he get such perfection that has made him unstoppable?

The innings of 63, DNB, 90*, 86, 102* in the five matches played so far before the final of the big tournament should be credited to the guidance of none other than 'The Wall' of Indian Cricket Rahul Dravid.

A challenge that the head coach of India Under-19 team, Dravid, had thrown before Gill after he failed in two consecutive innings when England came to India in February 2017 completely transformed the aggressive batsman into a reliable and big-scoring asset.

Dravid had observed that in both the innings, Gill had lost his wicket trying to play rash shots. So he simply went to the young batsman, who had always loved to dominate the opponent bowlers, and asked him not to play his shots in the air.

Speaking over the same, Gill said, "When England came to India last February, I got out playing two rash shots in my first two ODIs. I tried to lift the ball and got out," adding, "He [Dravid] came and told me, 'you are such a good striker of the ball, why do you want to hit the ball in the air?'"

"He gave me a challenge in the next two matches to not score any runs with aerial shots, and I got hundreds in the next two matches. He was like, 'see, you can score so much on the ground, why do you need to hit it in the air?',” recalled the hero of India's semifinal victory over arch-rival Pakistan.

Well, Shubman Gill has surely learnt the lesson his teacher Rahul Dravid was trying to teach him as he only scored 7 boundaries in his 102-run inning despite maintaining a healthy strike-rate of over a hundred.

Also Read: India’s U19 WC hero Shubman Gill credits his success to this superstition!

His inning could be rated as one of the best in the tournament so far because he scored the hundred on a tough wicket where none other batsman from both teams was able to score even a half-century.

Indian bowlers exploited the tough track quite nicely as they bundled up the entire Pakistan team for mere 69 runs registering a thumping 203-run victory to book the final encounter with Australia.

During the tournament, Gill has scored 341 runs (63, 90*, 86 and 102*) at a staggering average of 170.50. He, however, has been equally sensational throughout his U19 career as in 14 innings he has played so far, he has aggregated 1,180 runs at a phenomenal average of 118. He also scores at a great strike rate of 103.23 and has scored 6 half-centuries and 4 hundreds.

This year, he was bought for a whopping Rs 1.80 crore by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The final will be played in Tauranga on February 3. It may be recalled that India had defeated Australia by 100 runs in the preliminary league stage of the tournament.

It is worth mentioning that India and Australia, both have won the U19 World Cup thrice each, which means the winner of the Saturday’s final will become the most successful nation in the history of the tournament.