New Delhi: Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri backs Shubman Gill and urges management to give him another chance during the remaining Border Gavaskar Trophy matches against Australia.
Gill was overlooked by the Indian management despite some impressive knocks in the recent past with both white and red ball. Selectors have continued to back an experienced KL Rahul for the opening position on the side.
Shastri while speaking with Sanjana Ganesan in a recent episode of the ICC Review said that he believes the time is right for Gill to be parachuted back into the playing XI and be given another opportunity.
He said “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,”.
If Gill does earn a recall for the third Test that commences in Indore on Wednesday then selectors have a number of options at their disposal when deciding the final make-up of their XI.
Shastri has predicted Gill to earn a recall to India’s top-order for the third Test, adding that he does not expect this to upset the team balance too much as India strives for a series sweep and to book their place at this year’s ICC World Test Championship final in June.
“Not at all. I mean, it’s straight up, It comes down to performance,” Shastri noted, when asked about how making changes to a winning team may affect chemistry. 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,” Shastri said.
Talking about KL Rahul and his current streak of low scores, Shastri said “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,”.
India will face Australia in Indore in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy scheduled to begin on March 1.
(With Agency Inputs)
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