It is an old low-fi video. Two fresh-faced teenagers, all life and giggles, talking about the bromance, the first meeting, cheat-meal pizzas before matches, smearing cake on Rahul Dravid’s face, cracking teenage jokes, as comfortable in each other’s company as only teenagers could be. Seven eventful years have passed since Wisden shot the interview, just before the U-19 World Cup of 2018. Gill has inherited the mantle of India’s batting legacy from Virat Kohli, he is his country’s Test captain; Abhishek Sharma has seized the imagination of the T20 globe; he is amongst the most feared and natural six-hitters in the world.
The worlds and roads diverged, before they met again in Dubai, as though bound by an irrevocable destiny that wants them together. Nothing seemed to change, they seemed once again the teenagers they once were. They first met in an U-14 camp. Abhishek did not take particular notice of Gill, he says in the video. Gill, though, noticed Abhishek’s ability to clear the fence. Both got picked in the team, and the calm boy from Fazilka and the vibrant one from Amritsar struck a warm bond. They roomed and dined together, planned pranks together. went for movies together, stood firmly behind each other through thick and thin. Their backgrounds were different–Gill came from an affluent farming family; Abhishek had more middle-class forebears. But both had fathers that encouraged their sons’ cricketing afflictions. Yoked by the love for the game and batting, their bond strengthened. “I cannot describe our friendship. We strike off well, we are happy in each other’s company and success,” Abhishek told Sunrisers Hyderabad website.
The ineffable bond, like a pair of identical twins in a circus act, reflects wherever they are together. They bat in the adjacent nets, each has an eye on the other. Such is the trust that during one practice session, Gill called him to his nets and asked to watch a shot he was refining, the aerial flick. Gill was repeatedly falling over, thus unable to impart power. Abhishek told him to just keep practising and watched him with hawkish attention. Once Gill began to middle the ball, he flicked a thumbs up and resumed his own practice. When Gill finishes his nets stint, he devotes rest of time giving a running commentary on Abhishek’s batting, standing beside the nets. They wrap up their bags together and walk back together, as though one is a shadow of the other.
In the wild frenzy of the game against Pakistan they stuck their neck out for each other. When Haris Rauf tried to rattle him, Abhishek was by his side immediately. He said he was happy when he saw Gill retorting to Pakistan’s taunts with his bat. “The way he was giving it back, I really enjoyed it,” he said.
When Haris Rauf tried to rattle him, Abhishek was by his side immediately. He said he was happy when he saw Gill retorting to Pakistan’s taunts with his bat. (AP Photo)
Domestic and junior team coaches have tried to separate them, so that they interact with others too, but India captain Suryakumar Yadav is not fussed about their attachment. “It’s really good to be very good friends off the field,” Suryakumar said. “When you open together, that bond matters. Sometimes you don’t have to say anything in the middle. Just a look is enough – to take a cheeky single, to complement each other if one’s flying or if one’s struggling. That friendship comes into the picture when they bat together,” he added.
It’s nascent days, but they seem the T20 version of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. The latter would say, “Haydos, I got lots of man love, lots of brotherhood.” Hayden wrote in his autobiography that he always felt a sense of security when batting with Langer.
Brothers, and as Suryakumar says, “a fire and ice combination”. Contrast is the crux of the combination, what makes them so watchable for the audience and so difficult for the bowlers.
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Gill, the right-hander, is a modern classicist, the mystique. The framework of his game is classical, but the outlook is modern. Little improvisations, sometimes of the arms or the bat-swing, make a big difference. He lofts the ball that he would have otherwise driven along the ground, with a brief extension of the arm. Or he puts more wrists into his flicks to take the aerial route. Every training day, he refines his booming strokes for hours, braving the heat and humidity to make his cross-format behemoth. He can bat as freely and quickly as Abhishek too, as he illustrated against Pakistan. He essayed some jaw-dropping strokes, none as audacious as the short-arm jab off Haris Rauf. But there were other ones too, like the flat lofted cover-drive off Shaheen, where his strong wrists had injected superhuman power.
At times, he could rage like the fire too. Suryakumar complimented: “The only thing I’ll say is he knows how to score runs. Today he backed his shots, took fewer risks, trusted his strokes. And that reverse sweep – I was really happy. He’s been working on it a lot.”
At times, Abhishek would wear the ice vest too. He is a cavalier, made-to-measure T20 destroyer. But his game has classical foundations too, but stretched to neo-classical limits. He is not a blind slugger, but one who operates in straight lines and angles, whether he is employing the vertical or horizontal batted strokes. His strokes are of conventional nature, he does not scoop, or ramp or reverse sweep too often. He does not manufacture too many strokes either, rather dials his percentage strokes, and seldom tries to over-hit the ball. The biggest gift of his is that he could bat after the powerplay with as much aggression as he can in the phase. “As he passes the powerplay, he can still bat the same way he bats in the powerplay. But the way he analyses the situation post power play, what is required of him, what bowlers are going to bowl, that’s a plus point for him,” gushes Suryakumar.
“He is learning every game and it’s very important for someone like him to understand what his role is, how he can bat a little deeper into the innings. Most importantly, he never misses any practice session. He is always there to do something at least. Even if he doesn’t want to bat, he is there on the job,” he added.
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In a broader perspective, they could be T20I cricket’s most destructive opening pair, an irrepressible bond sculpted by friendship and familiarity. Like Langer and Hayden, or Frodo and Sam of JR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, or the Woodies in tennis, Flanagan and Allan in music. And every time they walk into the middle, they turn into giggly teenagers again. Like in that old, low-definition video.
