"I will want to open in T20Is": Shubman Gill eyes vacant slots by Kohli, Rohit

Shubman Gill understands how tough it is to fill in the shoes of Team Indias stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but the righthander wants to play the role of opening batsman in T20Is following the retirement from the format of the senior playersShubman Gill who was part of the Indian team as a travelling reserve during the concluded T20 World Cup 2024 has been handed over the leadership role for the fivematch T20I series against ZimbabweI think Rohit Bhai was an opener and Virat Bhai also opened in this World CupI have also opened in T20s So I think I will want to open in T20Is he said during the prematch press conference hereGill said he wanted to pursue his own goals without taking too much pressure while thinking of matching the two greats Kohli and RohitAsked how he will deal with the burden of expectations Gill said Pressure and expectationsthey I think always remain But what Virat Bhai and Rohit Bhai have achieved if I look to achieve that or reach that it will be very difficult for meAlso ReadIN PHOTOS IND vs ZIM Debutants for the BluesEvery player has his own goal where he wants to reach That is the pressure If you want to reach where other people have reached then you have more pressure he saidCaptain Gill hailed Rohit and Kohli as legends of Indian cricket Obviously there is pressure But what theyve achieved or what they did for Indiathey are both idols and legends of Indian cricket But as players and the team the things we want to achieve there is definitely pressure about thatGill confirmed that Abhishek Sharma who was in sensational form for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 will open the innings with him in the fivematch T20I seriesAbhishek Sharma will open with me and Ruturaj Gaikwad will bat at No3 he saidShubman Gill has captained Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2024 following the return of Hardik Pandya to his first franchise Mumbai Indians The 24yearold was banking on that experience ahead of the Zimbabwe seriesIve learnt a lot of lessons when I captained my IPL team for the first time I got to know a lot more things about myself and a lot more things about the leadership perspective he saidI felt most of the challenges that you face as a captain are more mental how you prepare the boys Everyones got the skill set its about how you can give them other players the confidence to be able to deliver that skill set on the fieldGill said the young Indian team will gain a lot of experience and get some muchneeded exposure to international cricket during the series against ZimbabweIf you look at the team its a quite different team from the one that played in the World Cup There are a lot of young players in the team including myself We just want to give the players experience and what it is like to play at the international level because a lot of the players havent played that many matches and some of the players havent even made their debutI think that is our aim for the series to give them more international exposure and experienceTalking about Zimbabwe Gill said I think you guys have got a good T20 team Even the last time when we played in the onedayersthe last oneday we played went on to be quite a close oneWe know that its going to be no different The way you guys are going to come against us is going to be no different than any other nation and thats the challenge for us he signed offWith PTI Inputs