SHUBMAN GILL

Shubman Gill is the modern aspirational top-order batsman of India's robust batting line up. His luck to fame skyrocketed when he scored 418 runs at a whopping average of 104.50 in the 2018 ICC U19 World Cup, where he piloted along with Prithvi Shaw and firmed the line up at No. 3 to act as a vital character in India's record fourth U-19 world cup title. Also, the edition's Player of the Tournament, Gill was a favourite in the 2018 IPL auctions and was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders for astonishing 1.8 Crore rupees.

Shubman was born in Fazilka, Punjab. His developed skill identified an early fan in his father, Lakhwinder Singh, who shifted their house to Mohali and leased a space nearby Punjab Cricket Association Stadium so that he could grow up with better access to cricket. And it wasn't long until he embarked on grabbing attention. He scored 351 in Punjab's Inter-District U16 tournament in 2014, piling up an opening stand of 587 with fellow opening batsman Nirmal Singh, and then went on to score a double hundred in his U16 debut for Punjab at the 2016 Vijay Merchant Trophy.

Soon, Shubman made his List A debut for Punjab in the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy, batting one-down, and went on to score his first-class debut in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy against Bengal, where he opened to hit his first half-century and stepped it up in just the next match with the first hundred against Services.

Shubman grabbed the BCCI award for the Best Junior Cricketer for two years in a row in 2013-14 and 2014-15, marking his presence and knocking hard on the doors of the U19 team. When selected, he starred in India's easy 3-1 victory over England at home in the Youth ODIs, stacking 351 runs across 4 innings and then went on to maintain to his great standards in his first tour of England. India managed to whitewash England with 5-0 and he became the top-scorer once again with 278 runs across 4 innings.

Gill effortlessly appeared to be the best batsman amongst his equals at the World Cup, contentedly overshadowing even Prithvi Shaw, the 18-year-old Mumbai batsman who had the journalists’ energetic by smashing five first-class hundreds. Shubman's bottom-handed method made stylishly positive by Virat Kohli amid several others, permitted him to play in an alike mould. He scored runs quickly, blending quick singles and doubles with commanding shots across the stadium, and stood out as much for his batting shrewdness as he did for his fielding ability.

After returning from New Zealand participating in the World Cup, Shubman lately found himself reappearing to the lowkey chore, representing Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He progressed the tournament with diffident scores of 25, 4 and 8 but soon back in form scoring a match-winning 123 against a Karnataka.

Though it's still too early for Shubman, he's a pungent combination of hunger, hard work and determination to nurture a career that should represent Indian cricket.

PRITHVI SHAW

Prithvi Shaw is not the first young Mumbai batsman who has managed to get heads turned and undoubtedly won't be the last. An advanced Shaw has been able to disrupt the Indian cricketing community with an agitated exhibition of batting in Mumbai's Harris Shield as a mere 14-year-old - an extraordinary 546, the highest score in any competitive cricket.

Since Harris Shield, he has been carefully observed by numerous talent lookouts in the Indian cricketing journey. He hasn't dissatisfied the hopeful enthusiasts of the game either, scoring loads of runs in school cricket and making his way up the ranks of junior cricket with the pure volume of runs.

His Harris shield performance was trailed by numerous others of note, counting centuries on debut in both Ranji Trophy (2016-17) and Duleep Trophy (2017) - a performance only formerly attained only by the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, in that way attracting comparisons with the little master and being greeted as one of the future batting backbones of Indian line up.

After rising steeply through ratings- and age-level cricket, he has professed the captain of the Indian U-19 side for the 2018 Junior World Cup in New Zealand. With an accomplished captain in him, an astral bowling group, and under the acute guidance of legend Rahul Dravid, India lifted the title, as Shaw contributed substantially scoring 261 runs at an average of 65.

Having lost his mother at a young age, Shaw's charge fell totally on his father, Pankaj Shaw, who gave up his business and shifted to Mumbai from Virar in 2006 in a hope to get Shaw near to the MIG ground in Bandra. In 2010, retired Mumbai spinner Nilesh Kulkarni speckled Shaw and got his sports management company to sign him up for INR 300,000 per annum. The off-field encounters have toughened young Shaw at a gentle age and he has evidently accepted the hidden mental durability into cricket which has decoded into loads of runs at the first-class level.

Shaw was asked to play in the school circuit in England and scored 1446 runs over a two-month period. With the volume of runs, he knocked at the doors into the dominion of junior cricket in India and sustained his rise up the ranks. Shaw has god-gifted expertise of timing the cricket ball - with a low grip, and an extremely bottom-handed technique to go with a thriving bat-swing.

An absolute joy when on the song, Shaw has a liking for timing the ball, a cool head on his shoulders, and a back-and-across activates to aid his backfoot play, which can be a great gift when batting in fast circumstances such as Australia. At a young age, his magic through the covers has turned out to be his Achilles' heel too, though he has sufficient time to work on his faults.

He has been bowled out through between bat and pad on various number of times as he has opened himself to drive through the off-side even when the ball is bowled at the stumps - chiefly due to his backlift coming down from gully into a hands-through-the-ball drive, somewhat than a check-drive from first slip, leaving an integral gap between his bat and pad for the ball to go through.

His astronomical stroke-play, challenging footwork, and spotless consistency made him play “A” division cricket at a gentle age of just 8-9. Contrasting to various other Indian cricketers, he struggles against short-pitched deliveries, nevertheless the faster pitches in Australia will possibly challenge him more - predominantly provided his team-on guard which allows him a fraction of a second less to swivel into for pull or hook shots.

As we can see, he is a bottom-handed batsman which lets him be an impressive cuter and active puller, usually providing him quick bat-speed through the line of the delivery. Conceivably check-driving is a skill that he needs to study the conditions favourable to late movement of the ball, such as in England, but again, he has plenty of time to focus on the deficiencies in his batting, and his fielding has been below average in the early stage of his career.

Shaw has made known unparalleled hunger for runs at every level of cricket he has played till date and has been hyped as the next big thing in the Indian cricket after Sachin Tendulkar. The enormous capability and steady performance at the first-class level, and the fact that he has continued unphased through the adulthood gained him a place in the Indian Test squad in England for the last two Test matches.

With the precise direction, adequate opportunities, along with a sensible supply of his load, he may well be his own batting sensation, who could make the cricketing world bow down to him.