Star Indian opener Shubman Gill has been on fire for Team India in 2023. The 23-year-old has played a total of 12 white-ball matches so far this year, in which he has scored as many as four centuries. He’s the most in-form batter in world cricket at the moment. Last month, during the first ODI between India and New Zealand, he became the youngest batter to score a double century in 50-over cricket. In the match that was played in Hyderabad on January 18, Shubman faced a total of 149 balls to score 208 runs. After scoring his maiden double century, Gill went on to score a century in the third ODI (Jan. 24 in Indore) as well. And in the third T20I, which was played in Ahmedabad on February 1, he registered the highest individual score (126 not out) by an Indian batter in the shortest format of the game.

With his ace form in the white-ball matches, Shubman has shown that he’s ready to take the cricket world by storm in the years to come. But in a recent Q&A session with ESPNCricinfo, when former Australian captain and batting legend Steve Smith was asked about the next batting superstar in world cricket, he snubbed the Indian and instead tipped 23-year-old English batter Harry Brook to become the next big thing. The right-handed batter Brook, who was on fire in the recently concluded first Test against New Zealand, was signed for Rs 13 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2023 IPL player’s auction that took place in Kochi on December 23, 2022.