Shubman Gill might be the poster boy for Indian cricket right now, but the right-handed batter has gone through his share of ups and downs while trying to make it big as a cricketer. The India Test captain, who set the stage on fire in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England, scoring 754 runs in five matches, recently narrated an incident from his childhood, where he was kicked out of the academy after his dad had a falling out with the coach.
Gill, who picked up a cricket bat for the first time when he was just three years old, had his first training session at his family farm. He would more often than not ask farm workers to bowl at him.
When Gill turned seven, his father decided to move the family to Chandigarh so that his son could have better facilities and opportunities. The now 25-year-old was also enrolled in a “public academy.” However, soon after, things turned ugly, and Gill was asked to leave. It was there that his father made it his mission to help the batter in his preparation.
“During one of the initial phases, my dad kind of had a falling out with the academy coach where we were enrolled in. He kicked us out of the academy, and that academy was like a public academy, not private. The coach used to have sessions from 6-10 in the morning and then 4-6 in the evening. So my dad used to wake me up at 3 to practice from 3-6 before he used to come. I used to wake up at 3, then I did practice from 3-6, and then I used to go to school, then take a half-day,” Gill said in a podcast with Apple Music.
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“When the coach would finish around 11 AM or something, then come back, practice from 11-3 and then come back again. I did this for a couple of years. I don’t have any bad memories or anything as such, but this phase was a little bit challenging. Waking up at 3, sometimes as a kid, you don’t want to wake up, but I was very grateful that my dad kept pushing me through,” he added.
When Gill decided to pursue cricket as a career
Speaking on the same platform, Gill revealed that he decided to pursue professional cricket when he was 11 years old. He revealed that he played a U23 match in 2010, and it was then that he stunned everyone by playing a 90-run knock against an opposition team that had players twice his age.
“Honestly, I realised this is going to be my career when I was 11. There was a camp going on for under-23 Indian fast bowlers, and I was only 11. Most of the players there were more than double my age, and they were a batsman short,” said Gill.
“I was batting way down the order at number seven or eight, but our first four or five batsmen got out within the first few overs. I went in to bat and ended up scoring 90-something not out. It was just a practice match, nothing official, but the confidence that moment gave me made me realise that this is what I am meant to do,” he added.
Gill recently played an unbeaten knock of 20 against the UAE in the 2025 Asia Cup Group A match. His knock ensured that India chased down the target of 58 with nine wickets in hand and 93 balls to spare. It would now be interesting to see how the right-hander performs against Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf in the match against Pakistan on Sunday.
