Dubai: The contrasting batting styles of inseparable best buddies Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill makes them a riveting "fire-and-ice" combination in India's T20 cricket set-up, feels skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
On Sunday, what looked like a tricky chase of 172 in the Asia Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, became a cakewalk because the two best friends since the age of 10, conjured an eye-catching 105-run opening stand.
Abhishek went on to score a scintillating 74 off 39 balls, his first fifty in the tournament while Gill shrugged off disappointment of an underwhelming league stage with a facile 47 off 28 balls.
"It's like a fire-and-ice combination. They complement each other really well. And that's what I want to see. If someone is batting brilliantly, the other can take the back-seat and rotate the strike. It was required today to have a very good start. And they did (provide that)," Suryakumar said.
Having played together since Punjab U-12 days, they know each other's game well and switch gears and swap roles long before the opposition can figure what is unfolding.
If one looks at their scoring pattern, Abhishek prefers the aerial route while Gill bisects the fielders on both sides with a surgeon's precision.
If Abhishek prefers heavy hitting, Gill's go-to method is silken grace.
'India vs Pak no rivalry'
Suryakumar has urged everyone to stop calling the contests against Pakistan a meaningful "rivalry" given how his team has dominated the arch-rivals.
India and Pakistan have faced each other 15 times in T20 Internationals, with the reigning world champions winning 12 of those encounters.
After the comprehensive win on Sunday night here, the proverbial question on the gulf between the two teams was thrown at Suryakumar by a senior Pakistani journalist.
"Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry," Suryakumar responded with a smile.
When the scribe clarified that he was referring to "standards, and not the rivalry", the Indian skipper said it hardly makes things any different.
"Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it's 8-7, that's a rivalry. Here it's 13-1 (12-3) or something. There is no contest," he said.