Team India’s Playing 11 for 1st Test against Australia: Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border on Monday picked Shubman Gill over Prithvi Shaw to open the innings with Mayank Agarwal in the day-night Test in Adelaide on December 17.
With no Rohit Sharma in the squad, the question doing the rounds who should partner Mayank Agarwal as an opener? Should it be Prithvi Shaw or Shubman Gill? Or should KL Rahul be promoted as an opener?
Gavaskar & Border both are of the view, Shubman Gill should be India’s choice for the opening slot instead of Shaw or anyone else.
“I think he [Shaw] has got to spend a little more time assessing his batting. As an opening batsman, you have to give yourself time to see what the pitch and the bowlers are doing,” Gavaskar said at a virtual media interaction. “Trying to bat the way he is batting at the moment is not going to make him a consistent player. Yes, he is going to make runs once in a while but he needs to tighten up his defence.”
Shaw copped criticism from Border as well for playing a few too many shots. He was out for 0, 19, 40, and 3 in his four outings in the two tour games.
Border echoed Gavaskar’s views and also praised Gill. “It seems to me he [Shaw] plays a shot every ball. I guess with the new ball, it looks good on flat tracks but in Australia, you got to be a little bit more watchful about your shot selection. He seems to be a bit loose (sic) outside the off-stump.
“I have been in Sydney the last couple of days, watching your boys run around. Jee, I was impressed with Gill. I really think he has got something about him – his technique. I know he is young, so he can play a few rash shots here and there but he looks like a seriously good player. He will be my pick [for the opener’s position] out of the guys I saw.”
Gill featured in both of India’s warm-up matches in the lead up to the first Test and was in good nick, with scores of 43 and 65 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Gavaskar & Border on who India should choose between Saha and Pant for the wicketkeeping role?
India team coach Ravi Shastri may have hailed Wriddhiman Saha as the “best wicketkeeper in the world” in 2019, but Gavaskar feels the fact that Pant scored a hundred in the last tour game – under lights – should see the left-hander break into India XI, at least for the first Test.
“Pant played in all four Tests two years ago and he also got a hundred. He seems to have got under the skin of some of the Australian players with his chirping behind the stumps. Plus he is coming off a 100 in the practice game, so he would be the choice of the management,” Gavaskar said.
Pant has been India’s wicketkeeper on the last three overseas tours to England, Australia, and New Zealand and became the first Indian wicketkeeper to hit Test centuries in England and Australia in the 2018-19 season.
Gavaskar feels the conditions and the uncertainty surrounding India’s top-order tip the scales in Pant’s favor. “Here, because India will play pacers, so you can stand behind and you get that much more time from 15 yards behind the stumps … also at the top of the order, India seem to be a little bit shaky, so they would want to strengthen their batting,” Gavaskar said.
“But when you are playing on pitches where the keeper has to stand up to the stumps, where the ball turns around a little bit, that’s when you tend to take your best keeper in which case Saha would be the obvious choice.”