Shubman Gill is the most complete athlete I have seen – R Sridhar

India’s fielding coach R Sridhar has heaped praise on young Shubman Gill for his athletic skills. Gill is a fine fielder and Sridhar added that the youngster is the most complete athlete he has seen.

As a fielding coach, Sridhar revealed that he observes Gill hand-eye coordination, his reflexes, how good his hands are, his speed to the ball and ability to throw from the deep and ball sense.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill had a good start to his Test career against Australia. The right-hander scored 259 runs in three Test matches at an average of 51.29, including a match-winning knock of 91 runs in historic Gabba Test match, which India won by four wickets to claim the series 2-1 against the Aussies.

However, Gill couldn’t continue the same form against England as he scored 119 runs at an average of 19.83 in four Test matches.

“Talking about Shubman, I feel he is the most complete athlete I have seen. He is slim, tall, runs fast and has got good hand-eye coordination.

On most occasions when a new player comes in – we know his strengths and weaknesses as we would have seen him play in the IPL or in India ‘A’. My job as the fielding coach is to make sure his mindset is in tune with the national team.

We also observe his hand-eye coordination, his reflexes, how good his hands are, his speed to the ball and ability to throw from the deep and ball sense,” R Sridhar said in a chat with the Times of India.

On the other hand, the former Australian spinner Brad Hogg feels there is one weakness in Gill’s batting, which the opposition bowlers can exploit. Hogg feels the bowlers should make Gill play away from the body.

“There is just one little weakness in his batting which I would be attacking. Whenever you can, you just try and let him play away from his body outside the off-stump. He sort of plays a half-cut half backfoot drive, you just got to try and expose that with the new ball. That’s the only thing I see as his weakness.

But the thing is, that’s where he scores a lot of runs as well. There’s no point in over-emphasizing that weakness if he is averaging 40 in that particular area with that particular shot.”

Gill will be seen opening with Rohit Sharma in the WTC final against New Zealand, which will take place at Ageas Bowl, Southampton.