The debate regarding KL Rahul‘s place in the Indian Test team doesn’t seem to stop. India’s former head coach Ravi Shastri has now given a verdict on who between Rahul and Shubman Gill should play in the third Test against Australia.
Due to his poor run in the longest format, Rahul was recently dropped from the vice-captain post of the Indian side. However, he managed to make it to the team’s squad for the last two matches of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023. Soon after the 30-year-old batter was removed from the charge of Rohit’s deputy in Tests, quite a few former cricketers expressed their desire to see Gill taking the openers’ spot in the upcoming matches.
Like many others, Shastri also believes that Gill should be given a chance over Rahul. While talking on the ICC Review, the veteran cricketer said that the 23-year-old Punjab batter has proved himself in recent times and deserves to be in the starting eleven of the next match.
“He (Gill) is that good at the moment and whether he scores or doesn’t score, on form, on merit, he deserves a chance,” said Shastri.
On being asked if making changes to a winning team may have an adverse effect, Shastri replied: “Not at all. I mean, it’s straight up, It comes down to performance. You stick it on the board. This is the performance. It’s a tough thing for a coach, I remember I had to do it many times, where you just sit down, and explain to the player, ‘This is what’s on the board, what do you think?”
Notably, Gill is in the form of his life across formats and slammed his maiden Test century against Bangladesh in December last year. Meanwhile, despite so many chances, Rahul has repeatedly failed to impress in red-ball cricket.
The third Test of the ongoing BGT will be played at Holkar cricket stadium in Indore from Wednesday (March 1). India currently leads the four-match series against Australia by 2-0.
