The competition for the openers' slots has intensified following India's T20I series win in Zimbabwe and for contender Shubman Gill, that can only be a 'good thing'.
Following the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from T20Is, the selectors will have a problem of plenty when it comes to picking the openers for the Sri Lanka series. India play a three-match T20I series, starting in Pallekele on July 27, followed by a three-match ODI series.
Gill, who is expected to open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in the three T20Is in Sri Lanka later this month, was the leading run getter in the five-match series in Harare. He was not picked in the 15-member Indian squad for the T20 World Cup and was named as the travelling reserve.
For the major part of the series, India played as many as four openers in the playing XI and all of them did well including Gill, Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Gill captained India's second string team and played as an opener in all the five matches with Jaiswal joining him at the top from the third game onwards.
For the first two games, he opened with Punjab teammate Abhishek Sharma who scored a hundred and a fifty in his debut series. Among the four openers, Gill finished as the top run-getter with 170 runs from five games but had the lowest strike rate at 125.92, compared to Jaiswal's (141 runs in 3 matches at a strike rate of 165.88), Gaikwad's (133 runs in 4 games @ 158.33) and Abhishek's (124 runs in 5 matches @ 174.64).
"It's a good thing that everyone's performing. It shows that everyone is hungry and nobody is ready to take it easy. For any country or board, that's always a good thing," said Gill on Sunday referring to the openers.
"Anyone who got the opportunity grabbed it with both hands. The openers to bowlers to all-rounders to spinners, everyone made a mark and I think the selectors have now seen everything and it's up to them to name the squad for the next series," he said after India's 4-1 series win over Zimbabwe.
On captaining the team through the series, Gill said he enjoyed every bit of the challenge.
"One thing about captaincy I feel is how much confidence you can show in your players. I try to do that and make them believe that if you try and execute the plans, the results will always follow," Gill said.
"After losing the first match, we were under a bit of pressure. It's not easy to play back to back games and the series was planned in a way that there were two back-to-back games, a couple of days rest and then again back-to-back games.
"It's never easy playing a series like that but I think the way we came back after losing the first T20I was really remarkable."
India bounced back to win the series 4-1 after losing the opener.
"Seeing everyone hungry and so quickly adapting to the situation and assessing the conditions was truly spectacular to watch," said Gill.
With the ball moving around in the powerplay, the opener thought it was important to be a little cautious early in the innings.
"I think, as per the conditions of the wicket, there were some challenging conditions, especially in the powerplay, the ball was always doing something or the other. As an opening batter, my focus was to see out 4-5 overs and not concede any wicket," he added.
