“Gurnoor’s pace, consistent lengths that he hit and swing was impressive. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Skipper Shubman Gill praised pacer Gurnoor Brar and left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey for their impressive debuts in India’s one-sided victory over Afghanistan in the rain-curtailed opening ODI here on Saturday.

Brar, who clocked 147 clicks and bowled some mean late outswingers at a brisk pace, took 3 for 27 in his maiden outing here. On the other hand Dubey, despite some initial pasting, ended with 3 for 47 including a brilliant air-borne catch taken by the Indian skipper who also scored 84 not out in a chase of 195.

“Gurnoor’s pace, consistent lengths that he hit and swing was impressive. Harsh went for 16 in his first over but still kept tossing the ball up which was very impressive,” the skipper had nice words for the pair of rookies at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Gill also admitted that Rohit Sharma’s run-out was an unfortunate one as the Indian skipper at the non-striker end almost collided against the bowler, who ran across towards the ball stopping him from responding to the former captain’s call.

“Rohit saw the replay and said it’s fine about the run out,” Gill said.

On the blinder that he took in the slips to dismiss AM Ghazanfar, Gill said that it was all about practice.

“I have practised slip catches a lot. I was telling my fielding coach that I haven’t taken any brilliant catch and happy to have taken it,” he replied cheekily.

While Gill praised Rahmanullah Gurbaz for his outstanding century (102 off 51 balls) that had eight sixes and as many boundaries, he lauded the effort of his bowlers, who were simply brilliant with their death overs execution.

“It was kind of a T20 game. We started well, they pulled it away from us. Gurbaz was brilliant. The way we bowled in the last half was brilliant. The wicket was brilliant (to bat on). There was grip for our spinners, ball came off nicely when they bowled.” While the opening game became a 25-overs-a-side contest, Gill believes that ODI matches are won and lost in the middle overs.

“Middle overs, in one-day games, are crucial. If we build pressure and create opportunities with ball, and score at six (runs per over) with bat without losing wickets, it’s great.” Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi observed that his side were at least 30 runs short on a good batting strip.

“It was a tough game (and losing) back-to-back wickets was the reason, I felt if we scored 220-230 that’d be a good target when Gurbaz and I were batting. But then wickets fell and we were 30-40 (runs) short.” He also regretted his shot selection off Dubey’s bowling.

“In my mind, I was targeting the left-arm spinner towards the shorter boundary. After Gurbaz fell, we made mistakes. The wicket was a bit flat. We weren’t that disciplined with the ball either.”

Published on Jun 14, 2026