The third Test between India and Australia is approaching and the debate over KL Rahul and Shubman Gill is also getting heated up. Rahul, who was the vice-captain of India, was given a chance over Gill in the first two Tests, where he could score only 38 runs and invited a lot of criticism over his form by the experts. Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad did not mince his words in criticising Rahul and the management for backing him, where former batter Aakash Chopra came to Rahul’s defence and urged everyone to show some faith in him. Recently, however, Chopra stated that the management could pick Gill over Rahul for the third Test as the young batter is in a great form.
“The probable eleven will be Rohit Sharma, Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami. For the eleventh member, it can be Shubman Gill, because we have to mention his brilliant form in Test matches. He has also made runs against Bangladesh in those matches. When the announcements came KL Rahul has been removed from the Test Vice Captain position, which is basically telling the world that since you are not the vice-captain, you can be dropped, so there might be a change in that part,” Aakash Chopra told Jio Cinema.
“Although Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma both have backed up Rahul’s talent, Rohit also found himself in that position where he was backed up by the team in 2012 or something, and now we know how well he has played since then. So, they want to invest that much in Rahul as well, but the time has come that Rahul won’t be part of the team and Shubman Gill will replace him, as I think, so I wish Shubman Gill well. It is a good time to score runs if we look at it from the Indian perspective,” he added.
Gill has shown a fiery form in Test cricket with his maiden century against Bangladesh in December last year. Apart from this, he went on to score a double century against New Zealand in an ODI match in January.
India have already secured the Border-Gavaskar trophy and they will now be playing for a record-extending 16th straight series win at home and a guaranteed spot in the World Test Championship final in June.
Leading 2-0 in a four-match series, India are sitting pretty and just need to make one tough decision of choosing between out-of-form K L Rahul and Shubman Gill.
The only hundred of the series, which has been dominated by spinners, has come from the bat of Rohit Sharma. If India get to bat on day one, the conditions will be ideal for the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to pile on the runs.
(With PTI Inputs)
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