Whatever is written in my destiny, no one can take that from me: Shubman Gill

Left out of next month’s T20 World Cup, India’s ODI and Test captain Shubman Gill on Saturday said he respects the selectors’ decision and remains focused on giving his best whenever the opportunity arises. The 26-year-old was not considered for next month’s T20 World Cup despite leading India in the longer formats. He has played 36 T20Is for India, scoring 869 runs at an average of 28.03 with a strike rate of 138.59.

“My belief is that in my life, I am right where I have to be and whatever things are written in my destiny, no one can take those things from me,” Gill told reporters ahead of the first ODI against New Zealand here on Sunday. “Obviously as a player, you have a belief that if you play in the World Cup, you will win (it for) your team, (and) you will win (it for) your country. “Having said that, I respect the selectors’ decision and (I am) wishing the T20 team all the very best and I really hope that they win the World Cup for us”.

Asked if his exclusion could have an adverse mental impact, Gill said it’s important to keep it simple. “Being a sportsperson, it’s all about being in the present, the more (in the) present you are, even when you are on the field, more you are not thinking about what’s going to happen, or what has happened in the previous moment, it gives you more chances of succeeding,” he said.

“I try to look at what I need to do now and what is important. The more we can be in the present moment, it makes our life more simpler, and if you make your life more simpler, it’s a much peaceful and a happier space that you would want to be in.” The New Zealand series is only his second assignment since becoming India’s

full-time captain in ODIs. In November, Gill had missed the second Test against South Africa and the ensuing ODI series due to a neck injury sustained on the second day of the opening Test in Kolkata. “(It is) never easy, especially whenever you get injured, watching your team play and you feel like you’re missing out on all those games, especially when you’ve just been named the captain,” he said. “There are so many things that you want to do and when you sit out there, it’s definitely very frustrating.”

Gill also dismissed the suggestion that senior players had chosen an “easier format” to continue representing India. “The Indian cricket team hasn’t won a World Cup since 2011, so if it was that (easy), we would be winning (the) World Cup every second year (edition),” he said. “It’s easy to say (that) but I don’t think any format is easy. It requires a lot of resilience, a lot of persistence, and a lot of determination to be able to win big ICC tournaments.”

Gill said he has been particularly insistent in his discussions with the BCCI on having more preparation time ahead of Test series. “One of the suggestions that I was very keen on is, if you would see in the last two Test series that we played, we didn’t have that much time to prepare,” he said. “It’s not easy playing in India, and playing another match in a different country on the fourth day, especially when you are travelling on long tours.”

Gill said this position won’t have changed even if India had beaten South Africa because he believes the Test team did not get enough time to prepare before the two home series this season. “Even if we would have won the series against South Africa, it still wouldn’t have made that much of a difference, because we know we need to prepare well to be able to win Test matches all over the world,” he said.

“Preparation for me is really big, and I didn’t think that we had that much time to prepare when we came back from Australia, or even after the Asia Cup when we played the West Indies series.” He added, “It’s important to at least have some bit of preparation especially changing from white-ball format to red-ball. I think we’ll take some action and we’ll keep it in mind to be able to prepare well before the start of any red-ball series.”