'Strike rotation in the middle overs will be key': Gill on mastering Dubai's tired pitches

Shubman Gill underscored the importance of rotating strike through the middle overs [11-40] on the pitches of Dubai at the Champions Trophy 2025. The Dubai International Stadium recently hosted the ILT20 tournament and the expectation is that the tired surfaces are likely to play slow and offer turn, as the one used for India's opener against Bangladesh did, and thereby necessitate better application from the batters.

"In the last match, the dew didn't come that much. So definitely, when the dew doesn't come under lights, it is not easy to bat on slow wickets," Gill said on the eve of the Pakistan clash. "It's not easy to rotate the strike. I think, whatever matches we play here, the key will be that whichever team rotates well in the middle overs - between the 11th to the 40th over, has a better chance of winning."

India got off to a strong start to their chase of 228 against Bangladesh courtesy a flying start from Rohit Sharma but suffered a mid-innings wobble and needed Gill to temper his approach and shepherd the team over the line with a slow, yet masterful century. The 25-year-old Indian vice-captain spoke about the importance of finding the right batting tempo.

"The ideal approach on any wicket is first to assess the conditions and see how the wicket is playing," Gill said. "As a batsman your skill is renowned by knowing how well you can assess any situation or condition that you are playing in and that's what we try to do as batsmen.

"Definitely we want to play aggressive and positive cricket but that also depends on - the score would be different on every wicket that we play. A 300 on this wicket or 280 on this wicket would be a very good score for us, or if the wicket plays any differently we might get 350 or 360 runs. We don't have any particular target set in our mind. We usually go out there, see how the wicket is and then try to get 15-20 runs more than what the par score we think that is on that wicket."

It was in this context of the conditions as well as the snappy and high-stakes nature of the Champions Trophy that Gill termed his century against Bangladesh 'the most satisfying' of his career. "The Champions Trophy format is like this, margin of error is generally very less, if there's a single bad match - then there's a lot of pressure on you, then all the matches become do and die, must win games.

"In the middle overs - for about 8 to 10 overs that we faced some pressure as a batting group, but it's very important that in such a phase you save your wickets, and not take more risks because the target was not that high. If we were chasing 270-280, we would have played a little differently. Even if the wickets had fallen, we would have had to take chances. But because the target was not that high on that wicket. The 8-10 overs in the middle, we tried to rotate the strike as much as possible and take less risk.

"In such situations, when a 40-50 run partnership is made, then there is more pressure on the bowling team. Because they have to take wickets. Then they try harder and boundaries come," he added.

Gill also highlighted the importance of risk assessment in the 50-over format, where batters often feel rushed despite actually having more time than they realise. "The format of 50 overs is such that we feel that we have less time and we have to take on the game. But when a batsman gets out, he realizes that he actually had a lot of time. We don't get to play as many matches in this format as much as we play T20 and Test matches. So, I think it's very important that whatever decision you are taking, you take it with a very balanced mind. And you should definitely check the scoreboard once, if you are trying to take any extra risk. But generally, as a batsman, it is our instinct to follow a tempo and keep playing at that tempo."

Speaking about his own stellar form - which includes back-to-back centuries and four consecutive 50+ scores - Gill explained that he only needed a slight mental reset after an underwhelming Test series in Australia.

"As such, in Australia, I think, I don't think there was any flaw in the batting. But definitely, sometimes there is a mental aspect," he said. "We focus a lot on batting and think that if we are not getting runs, then there will be some fault in batting. But it is not necessary that there is always something wrong in batting. It is possible that there is a shortcoming in something else. So, I didn't do any work on anything special, but I knew that white ball one day is coming up and then T20. So, I am practicing the normal things that I do at home generally."