Sunil Gavaskar doesn’t mince words. On the topic of Rohit Sharma’s successor, he’s weighing in on Shubman Gill as the new test captain. Gavaskar points out that it’s nothing new to see the 13th, 14th, or 15th player on the team get dropped when they’re not performing.
The Indian team is gearing up for a 5-match test series in England, with the first test starting on June 20. Gavaskar calls this a bold move, given the young blood in the team. “This is the first series of the next World Test Championship,” he says. “You need players who can play for the next 2-3 years or more.”
Gavaskar thinks Shubman Gill’s inexperience as a captain might not be a hurdle, thanks to seasoned players like Jasprit Bumrah, Karun Nair, and Rishabh Pant on the team. “This is a great team selection,” he says. “I think our batting might be a bit weak, but our bowling can win us the series. Our batsmen will struggle in the first two matches, but they might get their groove back in the last three tests.”
Shubman Gill himself acknowledges the weight of responsibility that comes with being the new test captain. “When you’re a kid playing cricket, you dream of playing for India,” he says. “And not just that, you want to play test cricket for a long time. It’s a huge honor to be made test captain, and it comes with a lot of responsibility.”
Gavaskar also commented on Sarfaraz Khan being dropped from the team. “It’s a tough call, especially since he didn’t get to play any tests after coming back from Australia,” he says. “He was injured during the Ranji Trophy, so he couldn’t show his form. You can’t afford to wait around. We’ve seen it before – when the team loses a series, the 13th, 14th, or 15th player usually gets dropped.”
Here’s the team lineup:
- Shubman Gill (captain)
- Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper/vice-captain)
- KL Rahul
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Sai Sudarshan
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Abhimanyu Easwaran
- Karun Nair
- Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper)
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Washington Sundar
- Shardul Thakur
- Mohammed Siraj
- Prasidh Krishna
- Akash Deep
- Arshdeep Singh
- Kuldeep Yadav