Shubman Gill has won many admirers with his classy strokeplay, with former Australia opener Matthew Hayden being the recent addition to the long list.

Hayden thinks the 23-year-old Gill is on his way to dominate world cricket.

Gill made 67 off 49 balls as Gujarat Titans got the better of Punjab Kings on Thursday.

“Gujarat Titans needed someone to take responsibility and bat deep in this run chase against a quality Punjab Kings bowling attack, and Shubman Gill did just that.

“Some of the shots that he played were pleasing to the eyes. He’s such a class player and he’s going to dominate world cricket for the next decade or so,” Hayden told Star Sports.

Gill himself though was not hundred per cent happy with his innings as he felt that he should have finished the game and not got out in the closing stages of the chase.

“I feel I should have finished the match,” Gill, who was dismissed by Sam Curran, said after Gujarat’s third win in four matches. “The wicket got tougher towards the end. It was difficult to score boundaries.”

Gill’s innings contained seven fours and a six.

The elegant right-handed opener has emerged as an all-format player for India and his seven international hundreds include a stellar 208 in an ODI against New Zealand in January.

The youngster is having a good outing in the ongoing edition of the IPL as well, as he has already amassed 183 runs from four games, including two half-centuries.

Hardik fined

Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya has been fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during their match against Punjab Kings.

The IPL aims for matches to finish in three hours and 20 minutes, but slow over-rate is proving to be an issue with several games stretching past the four-hour mark.

“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Pandya was fined Rs. 12 lakh,” an IPL media advisory said on Friday.

Written with inputs from PTI & Reuters