Former India player and head coach, Ravi Shastri has recently stated that India should bring in Shubman Gill for the remaining two Tests against Australia.
In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India is sitting pretty at the top with a 2-0 lead and now will look to enter the final of the WTC.
The third Test at Indore starts tomorrow between the two sides.
Meanwhile, Gill has been in stellar form for India as he has notched up four white-ball centuries recently.
Additionally, he is equally good in the red-ball format as well and must be given a chance by the team management.
However, the management chose to play the more experienced yet struggling KL Rahul ahead of him.
On the other hand, Gill’s maiden Test century came against Bangladesh in 2022 which proves that he can play better.
Says Shastri,
He (Gill) is that good at the moment and whether he scores or doesn’t score, on form, on merit, he deserves a chance.
Adding further, Shastri says,
When you have a player that confident and then his performances of late and the way he’s batted- there’ll be a lot of players in that team thinking within themselves ‘How’s this guy not playing? They must be thinking, to be honest, it’s like that, the dressing room. I know that dressing room. They’ll be feeling, Gee man, this guy is hot.
Shastri feels Gill will make a comeback for the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Meanwhile, India’s former head coach is of the firm opinion that the youngster will get a recall.
Moreover, he says that adding Gill and removing KL Rahul will not affect either the balance or chemistry of the current lineup.
Not at all. I mean, it’s straight up, it comes down to performance. You stick it on the board. This is the performance. It’s a tough thing for a coach, I remember I had to do it many times, where you just sit down, and explain to the player.
Furthermore, Shastri has also suggested that KL Rahul take a break to regain his form in Test cricket.
Sometimes a break for a player in those times is far better because you can go away, work on his game and come back stronger. I remember in my tenure, in the first Test at England, Pujara was dropped and he came back with hundreds. KL Rahul was dropped in Australia in 2019 and came back strongly too.
Apart from Rahul, other players who have been struggling are Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer.
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