India captain Shubman Gill is impressed by his early sightings of Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey in international cricket. After rain in Dharamsala had reduced the ODI series opener between India and Afghanistan to a 25-over game, Brar and Dubey marked their debuts with three-fors each.

While Brar hit speeds close to 150kph and got the ball to nip around at that extreme pace, Dubey, the left-arm fingerspinner, derailed Afghanistan’s innings in the middle overs by denying them pace after Rahmanullah Gurbaz had hit a 48-ball century. Brar and Dubey’s strikes were central to India dismissing Afghanistan for 194 in 24.5 overs.

“Very impressive upfront – how Gurnoor bowled, brilliant pace and the way he was swinging the ball, the kind of lengths he bowled consistently,” Gill said after India took a 1-0 lead against Afghanistan. “And even Harsh as well. After, in the first over, he went for 16-17 runs [16]… the way he pulled the game back, trusted himself and kept tossing the ball up. It was very impressive.”

After Dubey controlled the middle overs with the ball in a truncated game, India maintained the control with Gill leading the chase with an unbeaten 84 off 66 balls. Quickfire thirties from Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul ensured there would be no way back for Afghanistan. Gill touched upon the gains India had made, especially in the middle overs on Saturday.

“I think the middle overs in one-day games is very crucial,” Gill said. “If you can, as a bowling group, keep building pressure in the middle overs and keep creating opportunities…. And same when we are batting, if we can keep rotating the strike, keep batting at a healthy run rate, six-six and a half without losing too many wickets, then you can really set up the game in the death. So these are the key points that we discuss in team meetings – how can we keep creating opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling group. And when we are batting, how can we keep really pumping on the runs.”