ENG vs IND 2021: Shubman Gill Likely To Miss The First Test Against England

Team India opener Shubman Gill is likely to miss the first of the five-match Test series against England, which starts from August 4.

A report in Cricbuzz suggests that the young opener from Punjab is injured and is virtually ruled out of the first few Tests, if not for the entire five-Test series, against England. The cricketer is reported to carry an internal injury, however, the nature of the same is yet to be known.

The 21-year-old is known to carrying the injury for a long and the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand has only aggravated his injury.

And we have a winner!

Shubman Gill’s stunner to dismiss Ross Taylor has been voted as the @Nissan #POTT – Play of the Test 👏

Watch the catch again 📽️#WTC21 | #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/a1Tt9zsKen

— ICC (@ICC) June 28, 2021

Shubman Gill will continue to remain with the touring party. There is also hope that he will be fit enough to come into the scheme of things sometime during the Test series, which ends only after two and half months, precisely on September 14.

However, the management is not worried about Shubman Gill’s injury as they have a couple of backup openers. Either Mayank Agarwal or KL Rahul will be tried for the second opener’s role, alongside Rohit Sharma, initially. They also have the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal as backup options.

India to play a couple of warm-up games ahead of the Test series

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has requested England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to arrange a couple of warm-up games ahead of the Test series. The decision has come after India struggled badly during the WTC final due to lack of practice matches.

The team will travel to Durham in a couple of weeks for a pre-series camp and a couple of intra-squad games – the reporting day for the players, who have taken a break after the WTC final, is July 14.