Indian youngster Shubman Gill made his Test debut in the Boxing Day match against Australia last year.
Indian youngster Shubman Gill made his Test debut in Australia in the iconic Boxing Day match. He played a crucial 45-run knock in his first innings of the Test, and remained unbeaten on 35 as India won the match by 8 wickets.
Since then, Shubman has played seven Tests for the side -- including all of the four matches during the recently-concluded Test series against England, which India won 3-1.
During an interview with his Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, Shubman revisited the emotions he went through as he went out to bat for the first time in his debut Test Down Under in Melbourne.
"It's inexplicable. At times you go through a sea of emotions which you just make you go numb. It was that kind of a moment. Ravi Shastri gave a speech in the huddle and then I received the cap from him," Gill told KKR.in.
"After that we won the toss and elected to field first. As long as the fielding lasted, I was pretty normal. But when we finally batted, and I was taking a walk down from the dressing room to the pitch with the crowd cheering (backing the Aussies, nevertheless), it was an experience of a kind! It felt like going into a war!"
India had lost the first Test against Australia in Adelaide as they were bowled out on merely 36 in the second innings. However, the side made a tremendous comeback to defeat the hosts 2-1 in the four-match series.
"My biggest lesson was, no matter what, you can't rule someone out of a scenario," Gill said, as he reflected on his learnings from his maiden Test series.
"We had so many injuries but the dressing room positivity never changed. We got all out for 36 and despite that not for once our players or our coach or our captain and even the support staff felt bogged down or intimidated to such an extent that we didn't know what to do next."
