The problem of India’s opening position remains unresolved, with the question of whether Rohit Sharma will be fit for the Test match against Australia in Perth next week hanging in the air. With the captain unavailable, the management is weighing options to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal with someone. During the first intra-squad match played on Friday, Rahul stepped in as Jaiswal’s partner but was unable to complete his innings after being struck by a ball bowled by Prasidh Krishna. However, the Indian side also has domestic inflammation fighter Abhimanyu Easwaran in the squad, but his display during the tour games against Australia A was rather sad.
In the meantime, ex-India’s chief coach Ravi Shastri has come up with an alternative. Speaking to ICC, Shastri called Gautam Gambhir, Team India’s head coach, and shared the ideas of looking for some clues while the team is at the nets.
“That’s a tough one, and selectors have a choice. You can push Shubman (Gill) back up the order, and he has opened in the past in Australia. Otherwise, you’ll have to make an alternative. Easwaran has not performed very well (for India A in Australia). But it is actually more of how he is batting in the nets, how Rahul is batting in the nets. But that option of Shubman Gill is also there, “Said Shastri speaking to ICC Review.
Gill had his first class exposure during the Test series in Australia. He took part in 3 tests and managed to score 259 runs, with the help of two 50’s and his high score being 78 runs.
Under Shastri, the Indian team won the last two Test series played Australia. He was one of the strong advocates of the horsing system and that is the reason the playing elevens kept on changing during his tenure most notably during tours abroad.
“It’s horses for courses in many ways. Most of the team will pick themselves, but there’ll be one or two cases where you might have to just go and dig deep and go with a gut feeling,” said Shastri.
“I would be watching them ‘in the nets’ the batters and the bowlers as a bowler, I believe that rhythm is essential. And as a batter, tempo and rhythm is also again of utmost importance,” he added.
…It has emerged that there was a birth on Friday night for Rohit Sharma and his wife Ritika, who can now be called a mother and a father, respectively. Meanwhile, the Indian captain is yet to give a narrative around this issue. In the meantime though, this information is everywhere and there are reasons to believe that fans are certain that Rohit will make it to the team in Perth before the commencement of the first Test scheduled for the week beginning next week.
