‘He’s in great form, I hope he continues it’ – Rohit Sharma indirectly refers to Test Championship aspirations after Shubman Gill’s insane knock in IPL 2023 Qualifier 2

The Gujarat Titans defeated the Mumbai Indians by a score of 62 runs in the second Qualifier on Friday night, advancing them to the 2023 Indian Premier League grand final. After posting a staggering 233/3 in 20 overs, the Hardik Pandya-captained team bowled MI out for 171 in 18.2 overs, with Mohit Sharma collecting a magnificent five-wicket haul. The right-arm pacer needed just 2.2 overs to reach the feat while giving up just 10 runs.

However, Titans’ young opener Shubman Gill, who scored a swashbuckling 129 off just 60 deliveries, was the game’s standout performer. After Rohit Sharma decided to bowl in Ahmedabad, Gill slammed 10 sixes and seven fours on his way to the Titans’ high score. This was his third century of the year.

Shubman Gill registered the highest score of IPL 2023 vs MI in Qualifier 2

Gill recorded the best score by a batter in the season after hitting 50 runs in only 32 balls and another 50 runs in only 17 balls. Fans and veteran cricket players alike appreciated the opener’s performance, and Rohit Sharma also praised the Indian youngster for his game-winning innings. However, Rohit alluded to the Test Championship final against Australia as he was praising Shubman.

“All the bowling teams have been challenged this season, looking at what happened in the previous game, we had a great performance. Got to give credit to Shubman, he is in great form and I hope he continues that,” Rohit remarked, bursting out in laughter. The MI captain’s reaction was in reference to the June 7–11 London Test Championship final between India and Australia. Ian Bishop, the interviewer, laughed at hearing Rohit’s remark before moving on to the next one.

In the tournament’s final match, Gill is expected to bat first alongside Rohit, with the entire top and middle order likely to be made up of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane. In his postgame analysis, Rohit said that MI needed someone to bat through, much like Gill did for GT, but it wasn’t to be. “Gill was superb. We needed someone to bat till the end like Gill. It was a good pitch, one side was small, if we had taken the match deep then anything could have happened,” he said.