AHMEDABAD: India's surging World Cup campaign could soon receive a big boost ahead of the highly-anticipated clash against Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.
The team's gun opener Shubman Gill, who has been suffering from dengue, causing him to miss the two World Cup games against Australia in Chennai and Afghanistan in New Delhi on Wednesday, joined the team here, and started training in Ahmedabad on Thursday, raising hopes that he could make his ODI World Cup debut in 48 hours' time.
"He batted in the nets for an hour - from 11.30pm. He sprinted around, and looked comfortable," a top BCCI official told TOI.
Gill's speedy recovery and subsequent training session is welcome news for India as the 24-year-old has been in top form lately. ODIs, in fact, are a format in which he's currently excelling the most, having scored 1917 runs in 35 matches at a phenomenal average of 66.10, with six hundreds and nine fifties.
Still, it must be said that it takes time to recover from post dengue weakness, and should he play, Gill's fitness would be tested to the limit considering that he may have to be out there for 100 overs in mostly steamy conditions. It remains to be seen if Gill would make his comeback in this match, or against Bangladesh in Pune on October 19 after some more rest. If he's fit, the team management will have no doubts replacing Ishan Kishan, who has made scores of 0 & 47 in his absence while opening the innings, with Gill for this key clash.
If he turns out on Saturday, Gill will be playing his maiden ODI at a venue which holds special memories for him. It was here that he scored his maiden T20I hundred (126*) against New Zealand in February, a Test hundred (128) against Australia in March. He has also scored two IPL hundreds here - 129 versus Mumbai in Qualifier 2 this year and 101 versus Hyderabad.
