Ravi Shastri picks Shubman Gill to break Virat Kohli’s ‘973-run’ record in the IPL

Probably no other batter in the competition can duplicate Virat Kohli’s historic IPL 2016 performance. But according to former India head coach Ravi Shastri, only Shubman Gill of the Gujarat Titans has the potential to surpass Kohli’s record. Gill has 116 runs in three games this season and is presently ranked eleventh in the Orange Cap standings. 

As the third-highest run scorer for his team, the Gujarat Titans batter would need to step up his game if Shastri’s prediction came true. Sunday marked Gill’s 2000th IPL run. He has amassed 2016 runs in 77 IPL games with an average of 32.52 and an average strike rate of 126.24.

What did Shastri say about who can beat Kohli’s dream 973 season in the IPL?

The former Team India head coach, Ravi Shastri spoke in a Question and Answer session with Star Sports. He said, “He has to be an opening batsman, because only then will he get many opportunities to score runs. I feel it is Shubman Gill because he is in good form and also because he plays at the top of the order. So he will get a good number of opportunities to score runs”

Shastri spoke about the record’s tenacity and how difficult it is to break the record. He said, “The pitches are good, so if he can score 80-100 runs consecutively in two or three innings, then at that point only he will already have 300-400 runs. According to me, it is very difficult to break the record, because 900-plus runs is huge. But one thing is opening batsmen will get two extra matches and two extra innings, so they can only break this record if it is possible”

In the 2016 edition of the IPL, Kohli was in command, winning the Orange Cap race and setting a record with 973 runs—the most ever achieved in just one IPL season. He scored four tons during the competition, one of which came against Punjab Kings in a shortened 15-over encounter. Despite his efforts, RCB lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the championship game, and he was unable to guide them to victory.