Assessing conditions will be key to batting in England: Shubman Gill

NEW DELHI: India opener Shubman Gill said assessing ever-changing conditions in England and playing out sessions will be key for him during the forthcoming Test matches.

India play six Test matches in England — the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June followed by five Tests against England in August-September.

"As an opener, not just in England but everywhere, you need to know how to play out sessions. Playing sessions is very important. It has been seen in England that whenever it is cloudy, the ball swings a lot. When there is sun, the pitch becomes good for batting. It is necessary to assess conditions as opener," said Gill while speaking to India TV.

The 21-year-old, who made his Test debut in Australia five months back and has played seven Test matches till date, scoring 378 runs, added that India's performance in Australia where they won the Test series 2-1 will add to confidence.

"Our performance in Australia was very good. Over the last few years, we have been doing very well on away tours, so our confidence is very high. I think we can't be better prepared for the World Test Championship (WTC) final than this," added Gill.

Facing world's best bowlers at nets at his Indian Premier League franchise has added to his confidence. "It helps a lot when you play good bowlers in nets and play them for a long period of time. Your confidence is very high. Like in our KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) team, we had good bowlers like Ferguson and Cummins," he said further.

"Definitely, you get high on confidence. When you go out and play a match, you know what they'll bowl. Those things matter."

The Punjab batsman is undergoing hard quarantine with the Indian team in Mumbai. He said it is tough to keep one busy in the phase.

"Quarantine period is very tough because for 14 days you are only in one room, with not much to do. But we still do workouts in our rooms and keep ourselves busy in some way or the other. We watch movies on I-Pad. Otherwise, we play games, do workouts and try and keep ourselves as busy as possible. Quarantine is very hard," he added. IANS

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