NEW DELHI: There’s an old video of Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma doing the rounds. In it, Abhishek on his Instagram Live asks Gill, “Fans are asking, who is your girlfriend?” Shubman replies, “Aawaaz nahi aa rahi (Your voice is breaking).” To this, Abhishek mischievously says, “Ab toh awaaz nahi hi aayegi (Now, you obviously won’t be able to hear me!).”The conversation is aptly explained by Arun Bedi, former Punjab cricketer, who saw Gill and Abhishek right from their U-14 days for Punjab.“Ek shaant hai and dusra shaitaan (One is shy, whereas the other is naughty),” Bedi tells TimesofIndia.com.Come Wednesday, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma will walk out to open for India against the UAE in the Asia Cup that got underway on Tuesday. It won’t be the first time — the duo have been opening since their U-14 days. Bedi shares one of the anecdotes about them when Shubman and Abhishek were 13 and 12, respectively.“Earlier, there used to be a Dhruv Pandove Trophy for U-14 players. Only North Zone teams – Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, J&K, and Himachal – used to play in it. 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,” says Bedi.
“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.Bedi takes a pause and laughs before continuing.“First over after Tea, Abhishek took a wicket. The duo riled up the 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).”After the match, Bedi called up Lakhwinder Gill and Rajkumar Sharma – fathers of Shubman and Abhishek – and told them their boys were special and would play for India one day.The duo did end up playing for India. And it was not only Bedi who predicted it, but also Late Desh Prem Azad, coach of Kapil Dev.“In the coming time, the two boys from Punjab who will represent India are going to be Abhishek and Shubman,” Desh Prem Azad’s voice still echoes in Rajkumar Sharma’s ears.“Dono captain bhi ban sakte hai (Both can even go on to become captains).“Jab bhi inki batting dekhta hun ye extraordinary nazar aate hai (Whenever I watch them bat, they look extraordinary). I can never forget his blessings,” he reminisces.Beyond opening partners, they have been childhood friends and understand each other’s game as well.
Abhishek Sharma’s obsession with Shubman’s bat is well known. Abhishek scored his maiden T20I century with Shubman’s bat in Zimbabwe in 2024. “Whenever I need runs, I ask for his bat,” Abhishek had said.Meanwhile, Shubman in one of his interviews had revealed how once they had a big fight over the issue.“It actually started back in our U-16 days. Abhishek began playing with my bat — there’s a story behind it. He was batting on 80 or 90 runs using my match bat, and I didn’t want it to break, so I asked him to return it. We ended up having a bit of a fight over that! But whenever he asked for my bat, I always gave it to him — and he scored a lot of runs with it,” Gill had said in an interview with JioHotstar.Bedi says Abhishek was obsessed with Shubman’s bat and the current India Test captain used to take credit for all the runs he would score. “Sir, saare runs mere count hone chahiye. Khud ke bat se run nahi aate iske (His runs should be counted in my name, as he can’t score with his own bat!),” Bedi acknowledged.The duo were roommates right from their U-14 days and had a pre-match ritual. They used to crave pizzas and would gorge on the Italian dish before every game.In the same Instagram video where Abhishek teases Gill about his girlfriend, the current India Test captain had said: “Right from U-16 days and even in the U-19 days, we used to have pizzas before every match. It was a superstition. We did this for years. Pizza khao, run banao (Eat pizza and score runs). It used to be our mantra.”Now with diet and fitness in focus, it is unimaginable that the duo share a slice of pizza before their match, but both remain the same. Abhishek’s cheeky birthday post for Shubman’s 26th birthday is a reminder that one is still shy and the other mischievous.“With the bat they are ice and fire. They understand each other’s game so well and I am not surprised at the level they have reached,” Bedi says.
