In the fourth Test, which is being played over the last few days, India entered into the field with two spinners for one of the matches in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ravindra Jadeja had already featured in the playing XI of India from the third game at Brisbane, while Washington Sundar was called as the second spinner and included in the playing XI. All three opening matches India played of this series with lone spinners used by R Ashwin, Sundar, then Jadeja. With this, the plans changed for the visitors during the fourth match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and it was Shubman Gill who got dropped from the playing XI.
The former all-rounder from Australia, Mark Waugh, lashed out at the selection of the Indian cricket team.
“When Shubman Gill hurt his finger they were desperate to bring him in, and now they have booted him out to get another bowling option. Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy both can bowl and obviously Gill can’t,” Waugh said saying on commentary.
Another former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also showed disintegration towards India’s team selection under Rohit Sharma and declared it “harsh” for batter Gill to be out of the playing eleven.
Abhishek Nayar, on the contrary, defended the axing of Shubman Gill from the Boxing Day Test, saying that it was in the best interests of the team in having Rohit Sharma back to his usual opening slot, as it also brings some sting to the attack with the addition of spin all-rounder Sundar.
Gill, who has missed the first Test because of a finger injury, scored 31 and 28 in Pink Ball Test and looked most assured among Indian batters. But he was caught for a duck at Brisbane.
With Rohit Sharma opening the innings and KL Rahul coming at No. 3, Gill had to make way for a third specialist all-rounder in Washington.
Comments are closed.