IND vs NZ 1st ODI: All eyes on Shubman Gill after T20 snub

VADODARA: Clad in a sleeveless T-shirt despite the severe cold, Virat Kohli arrived at the Kotambi Stadium a couple of hours earlier than Team India. Kohli hit the nets immediately and hit some gorgeous drives as preparation for the first ODI against New Zealand here on Sunday.

A couple of nets away, India’s ODI captain Shubman Gill was going through the paces, hitting the ball hard and appearing totally focused. All looked well with his game. With the likes of Kohli and Rohit Sharma still around in the ODI setup, Gill’s current situation is a reminder of the time a young Mohammad Azharuddin captained a starstudded Indian team.

The 26-year-old Gill is still very new to India’s Test and ODI captaincy and will look to pick up the pieces after being dropped from India’s T20I team despite being appointed as the side’s vice-captain just a few months ago. After training for a week in Mohali, Gill turned out for a solitary match for Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Jaipur, where he was dismissed for 11 against Goa.

For the past two days here, though, Gill has made every effort to rediscover the kind of touch that saw him amassing 754 runs in five Tests in England last year. Those who know him closely swear by Gill’s work ethic and his zeal to bounce back after the T20I setback.

“He’s mentally very strong. Such things happen in the life of a sportsperson. He’s not the type who will get affected. He knows he has to respond to such things with his bat,” said Arvinder Singh, the CEO of Gill’s IPL team Gujarat Titans.

Ro-Ko set to ‘flag off’ Baroda ODI

The Baroda Cricket Association is making grand plans to mark the first-ever men’s ODI at the Kotambi Stadium with an event in which the star duo of Kohli and Rohit Sharma will ‘flag off ’ the match. The first ODI will mark the return of international cricket to Vadodara after almost 15 years. The last international in Vadodara, on Dec 4, 2010, was also played between India and New Zealand, with current head coach Gautam Gambhir hitting a century.

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