Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir (Credits - Twitter)

Former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir opened up on India’s playing eleven for the second Test against Australia. The Boxing Day Test will witness Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj making their debuts while the visitors have handed recalls to Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant. Gautam Gambhir feels that it would be unfair to Shubman Gill to miss out on the eleven when Rohit Sharma returns.

Shubman Gill made an irrefutable case ahead of the first Test by making scores of 43 and 65 in the second warm-up game. Despite that, the visitors went in for an out-of-form Prithvi Shaw, who failed in both the innings of the first Test at the opening position. It has forced the Indian team to trigger sweeping changes, mainly after they managed only 36 runs in the second innings that contributed to their eight-wicket loss.

Shubman Gill
Shubman Gill (Photo Credit: Getty Images.)

Gautam Gambhir claimed that Shubman Gill could not have got a bigger stage than the Boxing Day to get a chance for his debut. However, only time will tell if he would be successful. Nevertheless, Gambhir expects that the Indian management has picked him based on trust and not hope since the former would enable them to give Gill a longer run.

“Only time will tell if Shubman Gill will be successful as an opening batsman. But getting an opportunity making your debut in a Boxing Day Test in Australia, it can’t get much bigger than that. But again I expect the team management not to pick him on hope. Pick him on trust. Because if you pick somebody on trust you end up giving him a longer opportunity or a longer run. When you pick someone on hope, you are only expecting I hope he does well,” Gambhir told Sports Today.

That’s not going to be fair on him: Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir, Mayank Agarwal, India, Tests
Gautam Gambhir. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.

Gautam Gambhir further said that India has to slot Shubman Gill somewhere in the batting order moving forward when Rohit Sharma is ready to play. The 39-year old feels that it would be unfair to drop the youngster even if he makes a relatively low score opening in the second Test. He believes that Shubman Gill deserves a more extended run like Virat Kohli and Rohit did under MS Dhoni’s leadership.

“So, if you pick Shubman Gill I am sure they will be thinking about showing that trust in him. Even if Rohit Sharma comes back, they have got to push him somewhere in that batting order. It will be very unfair on Shubman Gill if he opens batting and gets to a 20-30 and then suddenly Rohit Sharma comes back and Gill finds himself outside the playing XI. That’s not going to be fair on him. If you decide to pick Shubman Gill, pick him on trust and believe in him and probably give him a longer run like what Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma got under MS Dhoni,” he added.

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