India took the field with a totally new batting line-up after Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were dropped from the squad. Meanwhile, KL Rahul is also unavailable for the series due to personal reasons. However, India managed an easy victory in the series opener by 222 runs.
Ahead of the 1st Test, India had a big decision to make on which batsman between Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill will open the innings alongside Rohit Sharma. In the end, Karnataka batsman got the opportunity and former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar backed management for picking 31-year-old for the 1st Test.
He is a boss in India says Sunil Gavaskar
Mayank Agarwal didn’t have a good series against South Africa. On the other hand, Shubman Gill didn’t feature in any of the games in the last couple of months. But, he had one fifty and two 40+ scores in the last three innings. There was very much expected that Punjab-born batsman will get to play alongside Rohit Sharma. But that was not the case as Mayank Agarwal played the series opener against the Islanders.
Sunil Gavaskar said that Shubman Gill is fully out of touch and he has not played any format in the past couple of months. As per him, a player needs to have a practice of any sought when playing for India.
The legendary player backed Mayank Agarwal’s name saying that he performs really well in India. He added that the 31-year-old is a very good batsman in home conditions and cannot be dropped just after one poor series.
“He (Gill) hasn’t played any form of cricket in the last two months. He did not even play Ranji Trophy so if you have to play for India, you need some or the other type of practice. Of course, he has the talent, there is no doubt about it. But in the end, it is also about form,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
“And if you see carefully, Mayank Agarwal always scores big in India’s home series. He bats like a boss in India but doesn’t score runs overseas. In-home series, he has at least one big hundred or a double century. So, he should definitely open,” he added. Meanwhile, the batting legend also backed Vihari and Iyer to continue in the batting order.
“And at No. 3 there is Hanuma Vihari. What has he done wrong? In South Africa, in the one opportunity he got, he steadied the tail and batted defiantly, adding runs in India’s second innings. So he should get opportunities,” said the 72-year-old further.
