Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has backed Shubman Gill to open the innings alongside skipper Rohit Sharma in the third Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The test will get underway on Wednesday, March 1 at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. KL Rahul’s rough patch has raised a lot of questions, with some experts calling for Shubman Gill to replace the under-fire batter.
Shubman Gill has been in tremendous form in white-ball cricket this year. He has slammed three ODI centuries including a double-hundred and one T20I century in 2023. The youngster has had a decent Test career so far, scoring 736 runs in 13 matches, with a century to his name.
Speaking to the ICC Review, Ravi Shastri said on Shubman Gill,
“For me, it’s a no-brainer (Gill doing well in Tests). He would have been knocking on the door from the very first Test match and what makes me think is what I saw in Gabba last time. When we beat Australia in Australia, who got the runs? Shubman Gill. When we bounced back in the G after 36 all-out, who scored the runs in the second innings? Gill.”
Players in the dressing room too must be thinking ‘How is Shubman Gill not playing’ – Ravi Shastri
KL Rahul has managed to score 38 runs in the two tests of the 2023 Border Gavaskar Trophy. He has got the backing of the team management, which several have raised questions against. Former head coach Ravi Shastri expressed that when a player like Shubman Gill is on the bench, even the others in the dressing room think about the player’s exclusion from the playing XI. He said on the ICC review,
“When you have a player that confident, and with his performances of late and the way he has batted, there could be a lot of players in that dressing room within themselves, not just KL Rahul, ‘How is this guy not playing?’ I know that dressing room. I know they must be feeling ‘This guy has got it…it’s just a matter of time.”
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