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Star India opener Shubman Gill named the weirdest person with whom he played cricket. He picked Manchester United captain and Portuguese footballer Bruno Fernandes.
During India's recently concluded Test tour of England, the entire cricket team caught up with Manchester United players at their training facility at Old Trafford. Players from both sides played a bit of cricket and football together in what was a fun outing.
"Probably Bruno Fernandes, because he's from Portugal. When we were at the Manchester United camp, not all, but most of their players had played cricket. Most of the English players had played cricket at some point in their life, in school or somewhere, but most of the other players hadn’t. Playing cricket with them was a fun, cool experience," he said. (via Apple Music's YouTube channel)
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Talking further about great sporting personalities, the young Indian batter revealed how he was starstruck when he met the legendary Sachin Tendulkar for the first time. When Shubman Gill was just nine and a ball boy in the IPL, he was awestruck watching Tendulkar practising and playing.
"When I met Sachin sir for the first time, I was 9 years old, and I was one of the ball boys. In the IPL, his team, Mumbai Indians, had come to Mohali for practice, and I saw him for the first time. It was just such a surreal experience, you know, watching him from the screen, my dad's idol, god of cricket in India. Just watching him practicing and playing, and how he prepares, I was just awestruck," he added.
Gill is currently plying his trade for India in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai. The Men In Blue began their campaign with a thumping nine-wicket victory over the UAE. Gill is the vice-captain of the team.
Indian opener talks about his trademark celebration
In the same conversation, Shubman Gill also opened up on his iconic and trademark celebration. The right-hander revealed that he had not intended to do it and that it came to him naturally.
After scoring a century, Gill bows down with his helmet in one hand and his bat in the other. He said that the first time he did it was when he scored his maiden international hundred in an ODI against Zimbabwe in 2022. The celebration has stuck with him ever since.
"Honestly, like, I had no… that celebration just came naturally. I had no intentions of doing it, and I had not planned it. I had never done it before that. But my first international century that I scored was in Zimbabwe, Harare, in 2022. It just, like, I just did it in that moment and kind of then stuck with it," he said.
At 26, Gill has already reached great heights in his career. He recently took over as Test captain. Apart from being the T20I vice-captain, he is also the vice-captain of the ODI team. He has slammed 18 centuries across formats so far.
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Rishabh is an Indian Sports writer at Sportskeeda who covers Kabaddi, Hockey, Indian football and Olympic sports for the website. He has an overall experience of around 3 years and has worked with My Khel in the past along with interning at The News Minute, Times Network and Deccan Herald.
Rishabh has done MA in Media and Communication Studies. He also worked in Sportskeeda’s Comms team and won the ‘Commentator of the Month’ award twice. He covered the Pro Kabbadi League and two of his articles were also featured on Jaipur Pink Panthers’ official website.
Rishabh started following sports after 2020 Olympics and also after his experience of watching Bengaluru FC at the Kanteerava Stadium in the ISL between 2019 and 2023. His favorite athlete is Neeraj Chopra as he’s brought a revolution in Indian sports. His historic gold medal win at the 2020 Olympics left a lasting impact on Rishabh.
He strives to ensure that his articles are accurate and he verifies information from multiple credible sources. When not working, he likes playing badminton and football.
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