Rohit Sharma on the Shubman Gill vs Suryakumar Yadav debate: “We have not decided who we will go with”

Indian captain Rohit Sharma has said that the team management has not yet decided who will replace injured batter Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI for the first Test against Australia in Nagpur, which starts on Thursday (February 9).

Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav are in contention for a place in the starting XI for the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In case, India decide to open with Gill, vice-captain KL Rahul could be slotted into the middle order.

At a press conference ahead of the much-hyped Test series against Australia, Rohit opened up on the Gill vs Suryakumar conundrum for the hosts heading into Nagpur. Not giving much away, he replied:

“Both have been terrific, and both bring different things. Gill obviously has been in great form and scoring heavily in all formats. Surya has been in terrific form in the T20, and hopefully he can bring that game into this format as well. But we have not decided who we will go with.”

While Gill has been in exceptional form in white ball cricket in the last few months, he also notched up his maiden Test ton during the tour of Bangladesh in December last year.

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Suryakumar has been India’s standout T20I batter in the last couple of seasons. He received his maiden call-up to the red ball squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“Obviously we will miss Pant” - Rohit Sharma on keeper-batter’s absence

India were dealt a big blow ahead of the series, as prolific keeper-batter Rishabh Pant was ruled out owing to injuries he suffered during a car accident in December last year.

Pant was the only Indian to feature in the ICC Test team of 2022. Speaking about the significance of having the left-hander in the side, Rohit said:

“Obviously we will miss Pant with the contributions he had made in the middle order. We need someone to bat like him in the middle order and the top order.”

The 35-year-old also hailed the quality of spinners in the Indian team. Praising the slow bowlers, he added:

“All four bring in a lot of different qualities. Not to forget three of them are quality all-rounders too. And Kuldeep Yadav scored precious runs in Bangaldesh.”

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India have picked Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel in their squad for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.