Despite his excellent form recently, Shubman Gill was unable to break into the playing XI against Australia in the first Test.
With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy finally underway at Nagpur’s VCA Stadium, the Indian team management made the difficult decision to bench Shubman Gill for the first Test. Given his recent form, many veteran players backed Gill to open the batting alongside skipper Rohit Sharma.
Gill was a member of Team India’s previous Test squad when they faced Bangladesh, and the 23-year-old even scored his maiden Test tonne; however, despite his outstanding form, Team India has decided to go with KL Rahul as their opener alongside Rohit Sharma.
Gill is still trying to break into the Test squad, having played 13 matches and scoring 736 runs with one century and four fifties. The Fazilka-born player’s recent form was one of the main reasons he was expected to start the first Test.
Gill has recently impressed with his form in white-ball formats, scoring a century in T20I cricket when India faced New Zealand in the final game of a three-match series. Against the Black Caps, Gill hit a brilliant 126* off 63 balls as India easily won the game.
Aside from KL Rahul’s return, Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat have also been given Test debuts. Suryakumar has been added to the squad as team India is missing the services of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant due to injuries. Todd Murphy, a 22-year-old off break bowler, also made his Test debut for Australia.
Fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment after Gill was left out of the starting XI. Due to his poor form, many argued against including vice-captain KL Rahul in the squad. Rahul last appeared in a Test series against Bangladesh, where he had the highest score of 23 in four innings.
