Our Bureau
Chandigarh
Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma have come up in their cricket journey together and from playing together in the U-14 days to now being part of India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2025. Former Punjab cricketer, Arun Bedi, who saw them from their U-14 days, talked about the two young stars saying, “Ek shaant hai and dusra shaitaan (One is shy, whereas the other is naughty).”
Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma will most likely be the opening pair that India goes into the Asia Cup. Talking about the days when they used to open together, Bedi talked about the Dhruv Pandove Trophy for U-14 players, where he coached both the future stars. Abhishek led the team and Shubman was his deputy back then and the left-arm opener led the team to the tournament victory.
“Earlier, there used to be a Dhruv Pandove Trophy for U-14 players. Both of them played for the first time under my coaching. Abhishek Sharma was the captain and Shubman Gill was the vice-captain. Our tournament was in Una, Himachal Pradesh. Abhishek was the Man of the Series and Punjab won the tournament. We defeated Delhi in the final,” Bedi said.
Bedi narrated the story of a league match where on Day 2, Himachal Pradesh’s team had taken a 10-run lead with five-or-six wickets in hand. While talking to his players Bedi told them he thinks that they would lose to which both future stars refuted against. The duo then riled up their team and played exceptionally bowling them out at 90 and then both openers chased the target down in 7 overs.
“In the league match against Himachal Pradesh, it was a two-day game. HP took a 10-run lead with five-or-six wickets in hand, and it was around Tea on Day 2. Maine in dono ko kaha ab toh haar jayenge (I told them, ‘we’re going to lose’). After Tea, they came to me and said, ‘Sir kaise haar jayenge’ (Sir, how can we lose?),” he recalls.
“First over after Tea, Abhishek took a wicket. The duo riled up Punjab boys and they bowled and fielded with aggression. We ended up taking the rest of the wickets, and the target we got was around 90. We needed to chase it down in 10 overs and these two got us home inside seven overs. Mai hairaan tha. itni choti umar mey ye aisa soch rahe (I was amazed — at such a young age, they were thinking like this),” he added.
