Pietersen assesses what makes Shubman Gill ‘intimidating to bowl to’ after technical changes: ‘Bowler can’t just…’

Legendary England batter Kevin Pietersen lavished praise on talented Indian batter Shubman Gill after his back-to-back half-centuries in the first two ODIs against Jos Buttler and Co. Despite a recent rough patch in red-ball cricket, Shubman has been performing consistently well in the 50-over format and played a crucial role in India’s ODI series win over England. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also labelled Shubman a classy player while talking about his 136-run partnership with him in the post-match presentation after the second ODI.

The 25-year-old, who has been elevated to the ODI vice-captaincy role recently, scored 60 runs off 52 balls on Sunday. He failed to get to the century mark and was dismissed by Jamie Overton.

However, his knock impressed Pietersen, who was doing the commentating duties during the match, as he talked about what makes Gill intimidating to bowl to.

“I talked about a trigger when you get into big boy’s cricket and you face the faster bowlers. You need a set yourself and it’s a start that he’s now started to take when he’s been batting. I think that it’s improved the way that he’s played. What makes it even more intimidating to bowl to, is his ability to just play that pickup shot, that little punch shot of the back foot, because a bowler can’t just hover short of a length,” Pietersen told Star Sports.

The 25-year-old took the aerial route only once during his knock on Sunday and hit nine fours in his knock. He also looked fluent in the series opener, but he also missed out on a century there and was dismissed for 87. He went for a rash shot at Nagpur and lost his wicket after hitting 14 boundaries.

‘Shubman Gill will wanna get the 100 like Rohit Sharma’

Pietersen asserted that he has witnessed improvement in Shubman’s game and said he also has the hunger to score centuries like Rohit Sharma, who did it in the second ODI at Cuttack.

“What he’s is get a full attack the top of the stumps or his bouncer has to be very, very good. So, he’s improved this game. He’ll want to keep improving, he’ll wanna stop getting 60 and getting out. He’ll wanna get the 100 like Rohit,” Pietersen added.

Meanwhile, riding on Rohit’s majestic century and Shubman’s classy fifty helped India claim an unassailable 2-0 lead over England with a four-wicket win in the second ODI. Rohit’s 119-run knock made the 305-run chase a cakewalk for the hosts as the English team failed to put up much of a fight.