India vs South Africa: Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav, the two mainstays of India's batting up the order, are in the middle of a lean patch in the T20 format. However, India's swashbuckling batter Abhishek Sharma has predicted that both Gill and captain Suryakumar will soon start winning matches for the country in the format and will continue to do so in the T20 World Cup 2026.

Gill's selection in the T20I has been met with criticism after the latter failed to perform in most matches, while opening the batting for India. Notably, Gill was roped in for the opening slot, which resulted in Sanju Samson losing his batting position. Gill was also appointed as Suryakumar's deputy in the format.

Gill has managed to score 291 runs in 15 innings at a strike-rate of 137.3.

During India vs South Africa 2nd T20I, Gill scored a run-a-ball 28 before he got out to Marco Jansen.

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"I'll tell you one thing straight away, that trust me, these two guys are going to win matches in World Cup (in February-March) and in this series as well," Abhishek stated.

"Because I've been playing with them since so long, especially with Shubman, so I know which match he can win, which conditions, irrespective of the team, whoever it is," he said.

"So I have a lot of faith in him from the beginning, and I hope everyone will see him very soon and everyone will have faith in him," added the world's No.1 T20 batter.

Once Abhishek got out at a team score of 60, India needed more than 10 overs to score the remaining runs with both Gill and Surya not able to bat freely.

"There was a bit of help for the fast bowlers, and as I was batting, I knew that if I gave a good start here, the match could get over in the Powerplay, and that's what happened.

"...that was the plan for the rest of the batters, that they would just knock out or finish the match, so it was a very simple plan after that," Abhishek explained the rationale behind taking it easy after a blistering start.

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Abhishek said he had to keep in mind that in cold December evenings in this part of the country, the pacers would get movement both in the air and off the surface.

"Conditions of course, I mean, as a batter you have to keep those things in mind that the ball is swinging a bit or it's seaming a bit, so I tried to play a few shots which is suitable for those wickets and pitches, so that's the plan always."

Inputs from Agency